Nobuo Sekine (b. 1942, d. 2019) was a leading figure of the Mono-ha movement, which emerged in the late 1960s and reshaped postwar Japanese art through its focus on material presence and the relationship between natural and industrial elements. After completing his M.F.A. in Painting at Tama Art University in 1968, Sekine gained international recognition with Phase Mother Earth, first presented in Kobe, which is widely regarded as the beginning of Mono-ha. His Phase of Nothingness paintings were later selected for the 1970 Venice Biennale and led to a series of solo exhibitions across Europe.
In 1973, Sekine founded Environmental Art Studios, a public art agency that produced large-scale commissions, landscapes, and environmental works. Throughout his career he continued to investigate perception, form, and material, drawing on a practice that connected sculpture, painting, and spatial intervention. His work has been featured in major exhibitions and institutions including the Tate Gallery in Liverpool, the National Museum of Art in Osaka, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Busan Biennale. Sekine later relocated to Los Angeles, where he continued to create significant works until his passing in 2019.

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RELATED

ARTWORKS

Phase of Nothingness

by Nobuo Sekine

Collection