Born in Kawasaki, Japan, in 1978, Arai currently lives and works in Kawasaki and Berlin.
While exploring the origins of photography, Arai encountered the daguerreotype, one of the earliest photographic techniques, and mastered this technique after much trial and error. He has used the daguerreotype as his medium as micro-monuments: image-objects that vividly convey to the viewer the sensation of engaging with events/subjects in a way that transcends time and space. 
In 2010, when Arai first became interested in nuclear history, he encountered the hull of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru and its former crew. Since then, he has engaged with the subjects to portray in Fukushima, Nagasaki, and Hiroshima. In recent years, he has been involved in interdisciplinary activities such as filmmaking, writing, and collaborative research. Arai received numerous awards, including the Source Code Prize (Solas Prize) in 2014, the UK, the 41st Kimura Ihei Photography Award in 2016, and the Grand Prize in the Short Film Category at the 72nd Salerno International Film Festival in 2018. His works are in the collections of the Smithsonian Museums, MFA Boston, SFMOMA, MOMA Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Guimet Museum, and other museums. His monographs include “Hyaku no Taiyo/ Hyaku no Kagami – Syashin to Kioku no Migiwa (One Hundred Suns / One Hundred Mirrors – On the Shore of Photography and Memory)” (Iwanami Shoten, to be published July 2023), “MONUMENTS” (PGI, 2015), and others. 

 

 

 

Exhibitions at PGI

2023.07.05－08.23	Quotidian Mirrors
2021.10.08－11.16	Image Object Exhibition vol.2 : Contemporary Daguerreotype Exhibition “Care: In an Age of Uncertainty”
2019.08.30－10.18	Imago
2014.07.25－09.20	EXPOSED in a Hundred Suns

 

Related Exhibitions

2024.01.26－03.02	TONO – FORESTS AFAR, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
2023.08.19－09.24	TOKAS Creator-in-Residence 2023 Exhibition, As Above, So Below, Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo
2023.03.04－05.01	Squaring the Circles of Confusion: Neo-Pictorialism in the 21st Century, Scarborough Art Gallery, North Yorkshire
2022.12.17－01.22	Prix Pictet Japan Award, Fire & Water, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
2022.11.12－12.25	New Acquisitions, Chiba City Museum of Art
2022.09.09－11.06	Squaring the Circles of Confusion: Neo-Pictorialism in the 21st Century, RPS Gallery, Bristol
2021.10.23－01.09	The World Began without the Human Race and It Will End without It, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art
2021.08.21－09.12	At the Shoreline, Chiba Foto, Chiba Park, Kojiitsutei Tea house
2021.02.05－03.12	Photographic Occurrences, Cook Center Process Gallery, Indiana University Bloomington
2020.10.21－12.08	1000 DAYS / 1000 MIRRORS, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
2020.07.09－09.02	Rebooting Nature, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
2020.07.17－10.11	Yokohama Triennale 2020 “Afterglow”, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama
2019.09.20－10.31	Nuclear Visions: The Atomic Photographers Guild, John and June ALLCOTT GALLERY, UNC
2019.08..24－2020.02.29	Feel the Sun in Your Mouth: Recent Acquisitions, Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
2019.03.14－03.20	The Vision of Contemporary Art 2019, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo
2019.03.09－06.02	Tomorrow’s History, (part of the Group Exhibition Camera and Canvas）Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Garmany
2018.08.04－08.17	SAN (Three), Gallery Intersection 611, Hiroshima
2017.04.07－05.27	Cent Soleils, Galerie Camera Obscura、Mois de la Photo 2017, Paris
2017.01.28－02.26	Bright was the Morning, Yokohama Civic Art Gallery Azamino, Yokohama