Chiharu Shiota at the Grand Palais and with Aguttes

Chiharu Shiota (born in 1972 in Osaka) is a Japanese artist renowned for her immersive installations and her exploration of memory, identity, and the unconscious. After studying Fine Arts in Kyoto, she continued her training in Germany under the influence of Marina Abramović, a pivotal moment that shaped her artistic practice.


Chiharu Shiota

Since the late 1990s, she has gained international recognition with powerful works in which intertwined threads become extensions of memory and the body. Her work has been exhibited in major institutions such as the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the SCAD Museum in the United States, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in England, and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington. In 2015, she represented Japan at the Venice Biennale with The Key in the Hand, a monumental installation that solidified her global recognition

Recently, his work has been honored at the Grand Palais in Paris, confirming her status among leading contemporary artists. Her creations are part of the collections of the Centre Pompidou, the Guggenheim, the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, and the National Gallery of Victoria. She regularly participates in major international fairs such as Art Basel, Frieze, and the Sydney Biennale.


Grand Palais in Paris

In this context, Accumulated Darkness (2004) is a particularly interesting work, marking a key period in her career.


Chiharu Shiota (born in 1972)
Accumulated Darkeness 4, 2004
Ink and pastel on paper
24.2 x 27.3 cm
Estimate : 6 000 - 10 000€

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Paris
Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
Acquired directly from the latter in 2008

This ink-on-paper piece is a rare presumed self-portrait, an approach she has explored through various mediums. The artist is depicted sitting with her back turned on a bed, in a posture that is both introspective and enigmatic. The black-line sketch, rapid and expressive, conveys a sense of fragility and impermanence, while the background is marked by a wash of red, adding a dramatic and emotional dimension to the scene.

For Shiota, the bed is a powerful symbol. It represents a space of transition—between sleep and wakefulness, life and death, memory and oblivion. This motif appears in several of her major installations, such as During Sleep (2000), where a bed is entirely covered with black threads, and In Silence (2003), where a charred piano is ensnared in a web of stretched threads.


Grand Palais in Paris

In 2004, the year this piece was created, the artist was gaining recognition, particularly in Germany, where she has lived and worked for several years. With Accumulated Darkness, Shiota captures solitude and introspection with remarkable economy of means. The black ink, fluid yet intense, conveys a sense of tension, while the diffused red stain seems to evoke a presence, a memory, or an underlying emotion. At the crossroads of drawing and painting, this intimate work encapsulates the poetry and depth of her artistic expression, subtly echoing her large-scale installations.

Public Exhibition
164 bis, avenue Charles-de-Gaulle, 92200 Neuilly-sur-seine
Thursday, April 3 – Tuesday, April 8: 10 AM - 6 PM (excluding weekends)
Wednesday, April 9: 10 AM - 12 PM

Upcoming auction
Post-war & Contemporary Art
Thursday, April 10, 2025, at 2:30 PM

For more information or to include a lot in our upcoming sales, please contact

Ophélie Guillerot
Director and Expert, Post-war & Contemporary Art Department
+33 (0)1 47 45 9 02
guillerot@aguttes.com