Black Surface
Noriyuki Haraguchi
October 25 (Sat) to December 27 (Sat)
Venue: YOD Gallery (Tennoz, Tokyo)

3F TERRADA ART COMPLEXⅡ 1-32-8 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku,Tokyo

Opening hours: 12:00-19:00

Closing date: Mondays & Tuesdays

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YOD Gallery (Tokyo, Tennoz) is pleased to present Black Surface, a solo exhibition by Noriyuki Haraguchi, on view from October 25 (Sat) to December 27 (Sat), 2025.

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Noriyuki Haraguchi (1946–2020) was an artist whose practice developed alongside, yet beyond, the framework of postwar Japanese art often linked to Mono-ha. From the late 1960s, Haraguchi expanded his activities both in Japan and internationally. In contrast to many of his contemporaries who worked with natural materials such as stone and wood, he focused on the “materials of industrialized society” — including steel, waste oil, and mechanical components. For Haraguchi, these were not simply sculptural media but “contemporary materials” that directly embodied the tensions between technology and nature, society and the human body. His presentation of Oil Pool (1977) — an installation consisting of a steel basin filled with waste oil that reflects its surroundings like a mirror — at documenta 6 in Kassel marked a turning point in establishing his international reputation for works employing industrial materials and reflective surfaces.

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This exhibition features a selection of relief-like paintings created in Haraguchi’s later years. Combining materials such as polyurethane, wood, and oil paint, these works condense the “weight of material” and the “structure of reflection” characteristic of his earlier large-scale installations into a more introspective and concentrated form. Within them, tangible surfaces and invisible depths coexist, revealing the artist’s contemplative exploration in his final period.

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Located in the Tennoz area, the Tokyo branch of YOD Gallery also provides a meaningful context for revisiting Haraguchi’s work. Once a harbor and warehouse district, Tennoz retains traces of industrial infrastructure that echo the materials and imagery central to his practice — iron, oil, and the reflective surface of water. Presenting his works in a space that has transformed from an industrial site into an art venue invites reflection on the relationship between material and place, positioning Haraguchi’s legacy not as a closed chapter of the past, but as a living question for the present.

This exhibition aims to reconsider Haraguchi’s work within art history while providing an opportunity to reflect anew on the nature of “material” in a post-industrial society.

We warmly invite you to visit the exhibition.