Graduated from Tama Art University’s Department of Moving Images and Performing Arts, Niwa’s socially and historically interventionist works, on the street and in other public spaces, experiment with actions and propositions involving mainly impossibility and exchange. From such unproductive physical acts as transferring water with his mouth from a puddle in East Berlin to create a new puddle a short distance away in West Berlin, in "Transferring Puddle A to Puddle " (2004), to putting himself in an unusual situation to undermine the reality of what we see and to expose the emptiness of systems that give an illusion of publicness, as when he walked in the opposite direction to people demonstrating against nuclear power generation after the Great East Japan Earthquake – "Walk in the Opposite Direction of a Demonstration Parade" (2011) – and "Demonstration Proceeds from the Prime Minister’s Residence to the Summit of Mt. Fuji" (2012), in which he extended a political act to a distant and unrelated spot more commonly associated with tourism. In recent years Niwa has taken an interest in the history of communism and moved on to projects that explore the nature of national history, like attempting to pick up and toss local communist party members in Romania, in "Tossing Socialists in the Air in Romania" (2010) and "Searching for Vladimir Lenin in the Apartments of Moscow" (2012), in which he searches the home an ordinary Russian family for images of Lenin years after the demise of the Soviet Union. Selected group shows are Double Vision: Contemporary Art From Japan (Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Haifa Museum of Art, 2012), Aichi Triennale 2013 (Aichi Arts Center,etc 2013), Roppongi Crossing 2013: OUT OF DOUBT (Mori Art Museum, 2013). He has been nominated for Future Greats 2014 by ArtReview.

link to ARTIST'S WEBSITE

Biography

1982 born in Aichi Prefecture(JP)
based in Vienna (AT)

2005 BA, Tama Art University Department of Moving Images and Performing Arts

Exhibitions, projects (2004 - 2019, selection)

2019
Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori, (JP) (forthcoming)
OnCurating Project Space, Zurich, SWITZERLAND (forthcoming)
JAPAN UNLIMITED, frei_raum Q21 exhibition space, Vienna (AT) (forthcoming)
The Communities You Must Have Imagined, satoko oe contemporary, Tokyo (JP) (solo)
We Unanimously Agree on a Plan that Nobody Has Asked For, PARCO gallery X, Tokyo (JP)
Protocols of Together, MEDO Space, Vienna, (AT)
Harmonic Ito Foundation, (JP)
POLA Art Foundation, (JP)
Heimat/Homeland/Tierra, Otazu Foundation, SPAIN

2018
Bildrecht, (AT)
Nomura Foundation, (JP)
UNTITLED, Miami Beach 2018
Art Basel Hong Kong 2018, (HK)
Limited Vision, The National Forum of Music Wroclaw, POLAND
steirischer herbst’18, Graz, (AT)
Practice of Occupation of the Work, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, POLAND
Wars Of Worlds, Visual Kontakt, Cluj-Napoca, ROMANIAImagining Memory: Between Anaesthesia and Amnesia, 1335Mabini, Karrivin Plaza, Makati (PH) 
Current Sign, Das Weiess Haus, Vienna, (AT)

2017
Too Pretty To Throw Away, Asia and Pacific Museum, Warwaw, POLAND
Socially Engaged Art, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, (JP)
Where are we going?, Zimmermann Kratochwill, Graz, (AT)
WOW - War of Worlds, MORA Centre, Bucharest (RO)
THE DEMISE OF CAPITALISM：Public Domain, DEPOT, Wien, (AT)
WOW - War of Worlds, Muzeul de Artă Constanţa, Constanța (RO)
That Language Sounds Like a Language, Edel Assanti, London (UK) (solo)
THE DEMISE OF CAPITALISM：Art Festival, Tokyo (JP)
MAM Screen 005: Niwa Yoshinori Selected Video Works, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (JP)
We're Heading to a Place Where Nobody Wants to Go by the Will of All, 1335MABINI, Manila, (PH) (solo)

2016
Packaging Design from Japan: Too Pretty to Throw Away, Siebold Huis, Leiden (NL)
Packaging Design from Japan: Too Pretty to Throw Away, Manngha Center, Krakow (PL)
Delayed Hypothesis From A to B, Alkatraz Gallery, Ljubljana, SLOVENIA, (SI) (solo)
Rivers - The way of Living in Transition/Asia Contemporary Art Links, Gwanju Biennale Hall, Gwanju (KR)
Against Reason, CAPSULE, Tokyo (JP) (solo)
Against Name, Minatomachi POTLUCK BUILDING, Nagoya (JP) (solo)
Power Of Ownership, 1335MABINI, Manila, (PH) (solo)
Setouchi Triennale 2016, Naoshima Island, Kagawa (JP)
House of day, House of night, @KCUA Kyoto University of Arts Art Gallery, Kyoto (JP)

2015
Historically Historic Historical History of Communism, Edel Assanti, London (GB) (solo)
Claiming responsibility by interpretation, NADiff Gallery, Tokyo (JP) (solo)
Research and Production: Artistic Methods in a Transitional Period, Tamsui Historical Art Museum, Taipei, (TW) (solo)
Our Beloved World, Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Magugame (JP)
Sunday School, #12 – Letter From Tokyo, DAM PROJECTS, London (GB)
Hommage for Tadeusz Kantor, @KCUA Kyoto University of Arts Art Gallery, Kyoto (JP)
Rivers – The way of life in Transition, Asia Contemporary Art Link, The Pier-2 Art Center, Kaohsiung, (TW)

2014
Research and Production: Artistic Methods in a Transitional Period, Tamsui Historical Art Museum, Taipei (TW)
Some Like It Witty, Gallery EXIT (HK) (GROUP)
Forces at Works, Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center, Manila (PH) (GROUP)
Susukino Triennale 2014, Sapporo (JP) (GROUP)
Never Trust in People without Contradiction, 1335MABINI, Manila (PH)
3331 Art Fair Various Collectors' Prizes, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo (JP) (GROUP)

2013
th Move on Asia, Alternative Space LOOP, Seoul, South Korea (KR) (GROUP)
Aichi Triennale 2013, Aichi Arts Center, Nagoya (JP) (GROUP)
Roppongi Crossing 2013 OUT OF DOUBT, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (JP) (GROUP)

2012
Possibilities is the antonym of today, Ai Kowada Gallery, Tokyo (JP)
Possibilities is the antonym of today, GALLERY TERRA TOKYO, Tokyo (JP)
Clapping hands for the bears in Bern, NADiff window gallery, Tokyo (JP)
Double vision: Contemporary Art From Japan, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow (RU) (GROUP)
Double vision: Contemporary Art From Japan, Hiafa Museum of Art, Haifa (IL) (GROUP)
New Gallery × New Artists × New Works, Ai Kowada Gallery, Tokyo (JP) (GROUP)
RYUGU IS OVER – Ryugu Bijutsu Ryokan, Yokohama (JP)(GROUP)
ARTSHOW BUSAN 2012 "Similiarities and differences", Asian contemporary media arts from Daisuke 2012 Miyatsu Collection- BEXCO, Busan, South Korea (KR) (GROUP)
Identity VIII (curated by Shihoko Iida), nichido contemporary art, Tokyo (JP) (GROUP)
Daikanyama Art Street, HILLSIDE FORUM, Tokyo (JP) (GROUP)
But Fresh, Tokyo Wonder Site, Hongo, Tokyo (JP) (GROUP)

2011
Searching for community, or their escape drama, Ai Kowada gallery, Tokyo (JP)
Social Dive, 3331 Arts Choyoda, Tokyo (JP) (GROUP)
Gallery Artists’ show 2011, Ai Kowada gallery, Tokyo (JP) (GROUP)
Art struction, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo (JP) (GROUP)
Re-Modernologio, Aomori Cotemporary Art Center, Aomori (JP) (GROUP)
Busan biennale Sea Art Festival 2011, Busan, South Korea (KR) (GROUP)
BONE14 festival fur aktionskunst, Schlachthaus Theate, Bern Switzerland (CH) (GROUP)

2010
No solution, but brawl, Ai Kowada gallery, Tokyo (JP)
The poetics of activism, gallery alpha M, Tokyo (JP)
Communicating with thieves, HIAP project room, Helsinki (FI)
Utopia of exotic, Pavilion Unicredit, Bucharest (RO) (GROUP)

2009
Face round, community!, Migigawanikenme, Tokyo (JP)
Transforming puddle A to puddle B, Art in General, NYC (US)
The Arts of Togetherness, Gendai gallery, Toronto (CA) (GROUP)

2008
Shaking hands with 100 cats in Norway, Gallery Coexist, Tokyo (JP)

2007
Emblem of Men, M100, Santiago (CL) (GROUP)
Beauty Farm, Neue Kunst im Hagenbucher, Heilbronn, Munich (DE) (GROUP)

2006
Living art from Tokyo and San Francisco, The Lab, San Francisco (US) (GROUP)

2005
On going vol.4 -Read Look Look!, BankART1929, Tokyo (JP) (GROUP)
BOY!BOY!BOY!, Ochanomizu women university, Tokyo (JP) (GROUP)
the Experimenter Project, Artpool Art Research Center, Budapest (HU) (GROUP)

2004
Eyelevel gallery summer performance series 2004, Eyelevel gallery, Halifax (CA) (GROUP)
While you were away:Mail Art Show, 667shotwell, SanFrancisco (US) (GROUP)
In transit, M100, Santiago (CL) (GROUP)
Who are you going to meet?, BankART1929, Yokohama (JP) (GROUP)