Artists | MAKI Gallery | MAKI

exonemo, the artist unit formed in 1996 by Kensuke Sembo and Yae Akaiwa, have been at the forefront of Internet Art for over twenty years. They have continued to produce works that engage with the relationship between ‘technology’, such as the internet and computers, and ‘analogue’ which constitutes reality. exonemo’s point of focus reveals perspectives that have gone unnoticed, giving expression to those perspectives in unique and humorous ways. Digital media has now entered our lives as a given; and the unit create works and develop projects that make us aware of the fundamental nature of, and relationships pertaining to, such media. In 2006, exonemo received the Golden Nica Award (grand prize) in the ‘Net Vision’ category of the Prix Ars Electronica, a competition held by the global media arts festival, Ars Electronica. Since 2012, they have been organizing the Internet Yami-ichi (transl., internet black market) in Japan and abroad.
exonemo’s recent solo exhibitions include U & I, NOWHERE (New York, 2019); LO, WAITINGROOM (Tokyo, 2019); The Life-Cycle of Interfaces, New Media Artspace gallery, Baruch College Library (New York, 2018); TO THE APES, Mitsubishi-Jisho Artium (Fukuoka, 2013). They have also participated in group exhibitions including The Invisible Hand, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Sydney, 2019); Reincarnation of Media Art, WRO Art Center (Wroclaw, 2019); TECH ART FOR COLLECTORS, Zurcher Gallery (New York, 2019); SUNRISE/SUNSET Artport, Whitney Museum website (New York, 2019); Reincarnation of Media Art, YCAM (Yamaguchi, 2018); and Hello World: for the Post-Human Age, Art Tower Mito (Ibaraki, 2018). Their work, Natural Process (2004) is included in the collections of Google LLC.
The unit moved to New York in 2015, where they are currently based.