Yoshinori Niwa (丹羽良徳, born in 1982, Aichi Prefecture, Japan)[1] is a Japanese artist currently based in Vienna, Austria.

[3] Niwa's art often carries humorous and provocative undertones, employing direct and slogan-like titles to explore and critique contemporary societal and capitalist structures.

His work investigates collective behavior, social norms, and political themes, sometimes drawing on the absurd to challenge established systems.

[5] His career started as a performance artist in early 2000, and he has been making documentary style videos internationally such as in Europe and Asia.

In early 2010, he started a series project which re-exams the history of communism in Eastern Europe in Bucharest, Romania,[6] and he did a project in which he was looking for people who still had something Lenin-related in their apartments for the group show Double Vision: Contemporary Art From Japan at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art in 2012.

[7] The series works had exhibited at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo[8] and Alkatraz Gallery, Ljubljana and Edel Assanti, London.

[9] At his project, Selling the Right to Name a Pile of Garbage, he was actually running an auction to sell the rights to temporarily rename a part of huge garbage Landfill in Novaliches, the Philippines in collaboration with local landfill operation company WACUMAN Inc. and a lawyer in 2015 to ensure that the landfill's naming rights they made sure the landfill's naming rights were transferred via a deed of sale signed by the landfill owner and other responsible parties, then filed with a public notary.

[10] The result of this auction had shown at the Vargas Museum, Metro Manila.

[6] Early Work Yankee Chicken Farm (2005), Going to San Francisco to Dispose of my Garbage (2006) where he took house rubbish and boarded a plane, crossing back and forth between Japan and the US,[11] SPRINGTIDE (2006), Transforming puddle A to puddle B (2009), Communicating with Thieves (2010) where he projected the words, On aika varastaa!

slogans onto the walls of several bank buildings on Saturday, March 27, at 7.30 pm–11 pm.

[12] Recent Work and Exhibitions Steirischerherbst’18 (2018), Withdrawing Adolf Hitler from a Private Space (2018), The Communities We Must Have Imagined (2019), Burning Blood (2019), Purchasing Blood with the company's Budget (2019),Unavoidable Work in Order to Keep Us Alive (2019), IME FOR OUTRAGE!

ART IN TIMES OF SOCIAL ANGER, Museum Kunstpalast (2020), Carrying My Own Belongings Inside the Body (2021), 10th Bucharest Biennale (2022), Sending an Invoice to that Museum in Moscow (2022), Narrating our Possessions (2022) in which he randomly read legible words over the telephone in a public space in London as he crawled through the street toward the gallery,[13] Living in Someone's Possessions (2023) he temporarily borrowed various things from ordinary people and attempted to imitate their daily lives [14] and the 8th Yokohama Triennale (2024), Purchasing a Rice Ball at Convenience Stores for 24 Hours (2024).

Niwa's practice is a critique on societal structures and capitalism.

Through the construction of absurd scenarios, he deploys a nonsensical vernacular to examine systems of exchange that drive contemporary society, as well as disjunctures in collective conceptions of history, ideology and value—an artistic strategy whose roots can be traced to the post-war Japanese avant-garde.

[15] Niwa uses humor and absurdity to make his art both critical and accessible.

This playful approach often draws viewers into a deeper critique of authority and tradition[16] These themes, presented through various media such as video, installation, and performance, emphasizes Niwa's commitment to experimenting with actions and propositions exposing the systems of exchange that drive contemporary society.

[17] Niwa frequently places himself in unusual situations in order to undermine and expose the emptiness of systems designed to create an illusion of “publicness”.

He prefers working in open spaces to dismantle the separation between art and everyday life.

Many of his projects are set in open, communal areas, aiming to disrupt archetypal power dynamics and create a direct interaction and reaction with the public.

Works like Withdrawing Adolf Hitler from a Private Space (2018) engaged individuals in a reflective act of confronting historical artifacts in private and public contexts.

[18] Tossing Socialists in the Air in Romania, 2010[19] Exchanging between Turkish Lira and Euros in Istanbul until there is nothing left, 2011[20] Looking for Vladimir Lenin at Moscow Apartments, 2012 Selling the Right to Name a Pile of Garbage, 2014 Paying a Courtesy Call on the Incumbent Mayor by All His Predecessors in History, 2016 Selected Solo Exhibitions Work in Progress: Ending War on the Other Side of the Earth.

MAM Screen #5: Yoshinori Niwa Selected Video Works.

[26] Selected Group Exhibitions Asian Art Biennial—How to Hold Your Breath.

OnCurating Project Space, Zurich, 2020. das weisse ab haus verkaufskunstschauw.