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Masafumi Maita 
Nationality: Japanese
Studios:  Ninomiya, Kanawaga, Japan
              Fujimi, Nagano, Japan
            

Masafumi Maita at Iwate Museum of Art, photo by Shin Matsumoto

Born in north-eastern China, then Manchuria, in 1944 and grown up in Japan. Studied in Paris, France, 1971-73, on a Shelter Rock Foundation Scholarship. He was active in the contemporary Japanese art since 1960s and  installed many of his works at public and private museums as well as open air exhibition sites in Japan and abroad.  He was a winner of 'Grand Prize of International Young Artists Exhibition'(1971), 'Kurashiki Machikado Sculpture Prize' (1994), 'Hongo Shin Prize'(1995), 'Nagano City Open-air Sculpture Prize' (1997), etc.
He passed away on March 9, 2009. He was 64 years old.

Solo exhibitions:
1966   Muramatsu Gallery, Tokyo ('71,75,79,81,83)
1972   Galerie Lambert, Paris
1974   Gin Gallery, Tokyo
1975   Gallery Iteza, Kyoto
1977   Gallery 16, Kyoto
1978   Gallery Kitano Circus, Kobe
1979   Kaneko Art Gallery, Tokyo ('82)
           Gallery U, Nagoya
1981   ASG, Nagoya
1982   Kaneko Art G1, Tokyo
           Ryo Gallery, Kyoto
1983   Amano Gallery, Osaka ('84)
           Space, Los Angeles, U.S.A. ('89)
1984   Seisyo Gallery, Kanagawa
           Sakura Gallery, Nagoya
           Gallery Konko, Kanagawa
           Ina Gallery 2, Tokyo
           Gallery White Art, Tokyo ('85)
1985   Passages-Centre d'art Contemporain, Troyes, France
           Gallery Maronie, Kyoto ('91,'98,'00)
1986   Gallery Caption, Gifu ('90)
1987   Gallery M, Fukui
1988   Gallery F, Gifu ('91,'94,'97,'99,'02,'05)
           Masafumi Maita's studio in Bodai, Kanagawa
1989   Gallery Yamaguchi, Tokyo ('92)
           Gallery Gen, Tokyo
           Gallery K, Tokyo
           Gallery Denega, Aomori
           Kasahara Gallery Annex, Osaka
1991   Kamakura Gallery, Tokyo
1992   Gallery Yamaguchi SOKO, Tokyo
1993   Morioka Crystal Gallery, Iwate ('96,'98,'99,'02)
1995   The Sapporo Museum of Sculpture, Sapporo
1997   Nizayama Forest Art Museum, Toyama
1998   Space Kaleid, Tokyo ('99)
1999   Gallery Move, Yokohama
           Ishigami-no-oka Museum of Art, Iwate
2000   INAX2, Tokyo
           Esprit Nouveau Gallery, Okayama  ('02,'05,'08)
2002   Zunko Museum, Iwate
2003   Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama
           Inform Gallery, Ishikawa
           Art Space Kan, Kyoto ('06)
           Mizu no Kuni Museum104 , Shimane
           Gallery Seizyo, Sendai
           Artcort Gallery, Osaka
2004   Minokamo City Museum of Art, Gifu (up to January, 2005)
2006   Iwate Museum of Art, Iwate (up to March, 2007)
2007   ARTLAND Gallery, Kagawa
           Masafumi Maita's studio in Fujimi, Nagano
           Gallery hu, Nagoya
2008   Gallery SEIHO, Tokyo
2009  
Masafumi Maita passed away.         
          
Kamakura Drawing Gallery, Kanagawa
           from HEVEN, Artspace  Kan, Kyoto
2010   Memorial exhibition,  Gallery F, Gifu
           Gallery hu, Nagoya
2012   Minokamo City Museum of Art, Gifu

2013   YOKOSUKA MUSEUM of Art, Kanagawa
           Gaiiery hu, Nagoya
          
Selected Group Exhibitions:
1969 
"The 1st International Exhibition of Modern Sculpture", The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Kanagawa
1971 "The 6th International Young Artists Exhibition", Takanawa Museum, Tokyo
1974 "Tokyo Biennale '74", Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum;
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art
"Japan pa Louisiana", Louisiana Museum, Denmark; Goteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden; Onstads Museum, Norway

1976 "The 37th Venice Biennale" Italy
1977 "The 10th Paris Biennale", Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1979 "LIS'79-Lisbon International Show" Galeria de Belem, Lisbon, Netherlands; Centro de Arte Cotemporanea, Portugal
1981 "Japanese Contemporary Art Exhibition", Korea Art and Culture Promotion Institute Art Museum, Seoul
"Temoignage'81" Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1981 "Japanese Contemporary Art Exhibition", Korea Art and Culture Promotion Institute Art Museum, Seoul
"Temoignage'81" Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1983 "Photography in contemporary Art", The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Kyoto
1984 "You Gatta Have Art" Laguna Beach Museum of Art, California, U.S.A.
1985 "The 2nd International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition", University of Hawaii Art Gallery, USA ('91,'94,'97,'03)
"Continuum '85 -Aspects of Japanese Art Today" Gryphon Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
1986 "Contemporary Japanese Art" Taipei Fine Art Museum
"The 42nd Venice
Biennale" Italy
"Ateliers Internationaux des Pays de la Loire", Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud, France
1987
"The 3rd Toyama International Contemporary Art Exhibition", The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama
"New Work Japan", Brattleboro museum & Art Center; University Art Galleries of New Hampshire, Durham, 
U.S.A.
1989 "The International Exhibition of Steel Sculptures Chiba 1989", Makuhari,Chiba
1990 "Territores 1", Reims Museum of Fine Art, France
1992 "'92 Minamikata International Art Festival" Miyagi
1994 "The 3rd Kurashiki Machikado-no Sculpture Exhibition", Okayama
"Dialogue of Photography and Sculpture:Anzai/Maita", Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura
"Light and Shadow-Japanese Artist in Space 1994", North Dakota Museum of Art, USA
1995 "The 2nd Fujisankei Biennale International Exibition for Contemporary Sculpture", Utsukushi-ga-hara Open-Air Museum, Nagano
1998 "Iwate Art Festival UK98:Land Art Koiwai" Koiwai Farm, Iwate
2000
"The Toolonlahti Art Gardens 2000" Helsinki, Finland
"Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2000", Niigata
2002 "Monnalisa mammom" The Hiratsuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa
2005
"SPACE WALKING" Nizayama Forest Art Museum,Toyama
2007
YOKOHAMA MUSEUM OF ART (Kanagawa)
KUNSTHALLE ROSTOCK  (Rostock, Germany)
Group exhibition - 'Six sculptors'(Gallery Shes, Asahikawa, Hokkaido)
Group exhibition  (Gallery Seiho, Tokyo)
Group exhibition  (Hillside Forum, Tokyo)
2008
Group exhibition (Cantine Belisario: via A. Merloni,12 - 62024 Matelica MC, Italy)
Six sculptors Exhibition (2F  Maki Design Bldg., Hiroshima, Japan)
INTERNATIONAL SCULPTURE EXHIBITION( Aglie,Torino, Italy)
Plane Works of Sculptors(Gallery Maronie, Kyoto, Japan)
Group exhibition (Shina  Gallery, Kyoto, Japan)     Up to Jan. 2009
Group exhibition (ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka, JAPAN) Up to Mar. 2009
2009 "The 10th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition"(University of Hawaii Art Gallery, USA)
Asuka to Nara   -Prologue to International Exhibition of Sculpture- (Asuka, Nara, Japan)
From Home to the Museum : Exhibition of Tsuneko Tanaka's Collection
  (The MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, WAKAYAMA, Japan)
2011 "To the 1970's Turning Point of Photography & Art Copying,Refection,and  Projection Period 1 Choosing Photos: Checking Vision”
 (Yumiko Chiba Associates viewing room shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan)
2013  "OHARA CONTEMPORARY", Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan)
2014 " Mono-ha Artists ", The Museum of Contemporary Art, Karuizawa, Nagano, Japana
Image and Matter in Japanese Photography from the 1970s, Curated  by Yumiko Chiba
     Marianne Boesky Gallery(118 East 64th Street, NYC, NYImage and Matter in Japanese Photography from the 1970s,
2015 "For a New World to Come: Experiment in Japanese Art and Photography, 1968-1979", The Museum of Fine Arts,Houston, USA
"It Began in Kamakura The 65 Years of The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura", Kanagawa, Japan
"Over look exhibition 1960~1970 contemporary Art", Gallery Kawafune, Tokyo, Japan
" Paris Photo 2015 ", Grand Palais , Paris
2016

"daikanyama photo fair 2016", Tokyo
"frieze masters", London, UK
" Paris Photo 2016 ", Grand Palais , Paris

Selected list of his works in public collections:
   The Utsukusi-ga-hara open-Air Museum, Nagano, Japan
   The Open-Air Museum of Sculpture, Ube, Japan
   The Museum" haus Kasuya" , Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan
   The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan
   The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan
   Musee d' Art Moderrne de la Ville de Paris, France
   Musee d' Art Moderrne de Troyes, France
   Musee Cantini, Marseille, France
   Musee d' Art Moderrne de Strasbourg, France
   Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Reims, France
   Santa Barbara Museum of Modern Art, Mammola, Italy 
   Ministere de la Culture, France
   The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Hawaii, U.S.A.
   The Sapporo Museum of Sculpture, Hokkaido, Japan
   The Nizayama Forest Art Museum, Toyama, Japan
   Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan
   Lake Toya Round Sculpture Park, Toyako, Hokkaido, Japan
   Minokamo City Museum of Art, Gifu, Japan
   Azienda Vinicola Salomone, Matelica (MC), Italy
   Yokosuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan

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