Motoyuki Shitamichi (b. Okayama, 1978) is a contemporary artist, curator, and researcher. Shitamichi graduated from Musashino University in 2001 with a BFA in painting, followed by postgraduate studies at the Tokyo College of Photography until 2003. He has been actively publishing photo books since 2005, and was a visiting researcher at the National Museum of Ethnology from 2016-19. Shitamichi presented Tsunami Boulder as a representative of Japan at the 2019 Venice Biennale and exhibited at the 2018 and 2012 Gwangju Biennales. In 2020, he received the 21st Okayama Arts and Culture Award Grand Prize, as well the Tokyo Contemporary Art Award in 2019. Shitamichi has been based in the village of Honmura on the art island of Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea since 2019, when he started the Setouchi “ ” Archive at Miyanoura Gallery 6—the quotes are filled to match each new project’s theme.
Shitamichi has exhibited extensively throughout Japan and abroad, including solo exhibitions at Kunsthal Aarhus (2022), Ohara Museum of Art (2019), and Kurobe City Art Museum (2016). His works are included in the collections of the Kadist Art Foundation, California; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; the National Museum of Art, Osaka; Takamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa; Ishikawa Foundation, Okayama; and the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, amongst others.