Imai Norio

IMAI Norio (1946, Japan) is an Osaka-based artist whose career spans from the 1960s to the present. His diverse work has included painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, video and performance. He uses monochromatic minimalism to explore the sculptural possibilities of painting. In the landscape of postwar Japan, he combated the notions of innovation leading to growth by portraying the negative sides of growth in his works, such as mutation and collapse. Starting with En (Circle) (1967), Imai has created a number of video installations and short films. Notably, he is the youngest member of the influential Gutai group, an organization of influential radical artists in Japan founded in the 1950s.