Naoki Kimura
PROFILE
Naoki Kimura, who spent his early childhood in Nishijin, Kyoto, moved to the United States in 1987 to further pursue photography as a form of fine art.
Today, Kimura’s work centers on “Nagi” (Lullscapes), a sensibility that moves within the subtle intervals between light and shadow, time and space. Through monochrome photography, he explores presences and relationships that emerge before they fully settle into fixed form or recognition.
The distinctive capacity of monochrome imagery to abstract reality and quietly reveal the contours of existence has remained at the core of his practice throughout his career.
After relocating to the United States, Kimura developed his work internationally while based in New York. From the early 1990s onward, he produced and presented numerous works throughout Europe, particularly in Italy. His photographic works, shaped by the atmospheric depth of European cities and architectural spaces, evolved into a unique visual language in which architecture was approached not merely as structure, but as a site where time, memory, silence, and spatial presence accumulate. He has also produced collaborative series with architects.
Since around 2017, Kimura has been based in Tokyo, where his work has continued to deepen through an attentiveness to spatial presence and the quiet relations formed between light, shadow, time, and silence. Rather than emphasizing the subject itself, his recent works increasingly turn toward subtle states that exist prior to the stabilization of the image — quiet intervals, traces of perception, and forms of presence that have not yet fully settled into recognition.
In recent years, Kimura’s practice has further evolved through the development of “Zero-Horizon Photo Art Theory” and “Shado,” frameworks through which photography is approached not as the reproduction of an object, but as an encounter with the conditions from which perception and presence emerge.
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Osaka Prefecture, raised in Kyoto City
PAST EXHIBITIONS
Solo Exhibitions（Selected）：
2025 “Lullscapes in Light and Shadow” Hilton Tokyo Chocolate Lounge, Tokyo
2024 “KOIN – a time flies as lullscapes” KYOTO TSUTAYA BOOKS, Kyoto
2023 “the tranquility as lullscape ‘nagi’ In praise of shadows” Sho+1, Tokyo
2022 “’nagi’ on the edge of Milestone” Fireking cafe, Tokyo
2018 “’nagi’ – anecdote – Naoki Kimura” Soei Gallery, Tokyo
2015 “through the window – Fallen and Piled Up Lights” Emon Photo Gallery, Tokyo
2014 “『Nagi』Photo Book Publication Commemorative Exhibition” Emon Photo Gallery, Tokyo
2013 “Director’s Choice Vol.3 B&W” Emon Photo Gallery, Tokyo
2012 “Director’s Choice Vol.2” Emon Photo Gallery, Tokyo
2011 “PORTRAIT” Emon Photo Gallery, Tokyo
2010 “Silent Monochrome” Emon Photo Gallery, Tokyo
2009 “NAGI- Beginning, Fleeting Moment – Naoki Kimura” Emon Photo Gallery, Tokyo
2005 “ML Collaboration Project: Photographs as Interior” Cassina IXC, Tokyo
1993 “3 days in China Town / Naoki Kimura Exposure” Shibuya PARCO, Traveling Exhibition at PARCO Stores, Tokyo
Group Exhibitions（Selected）：
2025 “Between Scenes” Sho+1, Tokyo
2024 “Art Collaboration Kyoto（ACK）” Sho+1, Kyoto
2024 “ART FAIR TOKYO 2024” Sho+1, Tokyo
2022 “art stage OSAKA” Sho+1, Osaka
2022 “ART FAIR TOKYO 2022” Sho+1, Tokyo
2019 “Architecture and Light” Emon Photo Gallery, Tokyo
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