Nerhol is an artist duo created in 2007 and composed of Yoshihisa Tanaka and Ryuta Iida. Its members previously worked independently, but decided to work as a unit when they found a shared interest in raising questions relevant to the contemporary period and communicating them to an audience. Their exploration started from dissimilation of books, characters and fixed icons around the world. Since 2011, they have continued to develop their unique oeuvre through a distinct method of carving into stacks of over 200 different photographs they have taken of portraits, the result of which are images that appear to distort even the very time axis of the subjects themselves. They have since taken part in exhibitions at museums and galleries both within Japan and abroad and produced works based on subjects including a roadside tree, animals and water, as well as image data and recorded footage found on the internet as their source material. Such works have consistently engaged in an attempt to unveil the multilayered manner of existence harbored within organic entities, which often tend to be overlooked within the context of our day-to-day lives.
Their major solo exhibitions include, "TURNING THE LEAVES OF HORIZONS", Chiba City Museum of Art (2024), "Tenjin, Mume, Nusa", Dazaifu Tenmangu(2024), "Beyond the Way", Museo Leonora Carrington(2024), "Affect", Dai-ichi Life Gallery, M5 Gallery (2023), "critical plane", Yutaka Kikutake Gallery(2021)“Interview, Portrait, House and Room”, Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea (2017), “Promenade”, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa (2016), “Index”, Foam Museum, Amsterdam (2015).
Their works are held in a several collections including Foam Museum (Amsterdam) , Fundación AMMA (Mexico), Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art (Korea) and of Art (2024) and Dazaifu Tenmangu(Fukuoka).
Iida was born in 1981 in Shizuoka Prefecture. After receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the Nihon University College of Art in 2004, he received MA from the Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Intermedia Art. He is currently based in Tokyo.
Tanaka was born in 1980 in Shizuoka Prefecture and has been based in Tokyo since graduating from the Department of Scenography, Display and Fashion Design, Musashino Art University in 2004.