Nobuyoshi Araki at the National Gallery

Nobuyoshi Araki Exhibition at the National Gallery 

The National Gallery in Mahe, Seychelles offers a dynamic space for both contemporary and traditional Seychellois art, as well as international artists, featuring rotating exhibitions that highlight the creativity and cultural richness of local and international artists. Visitors can explore a diverse collection of paintings, sculptures, and multimedia installations.
Whether you’re an art enthusiast or a curious traveler, the Seychelles National Gallery provides an inspiring experience that immerses you in the artistic soul of the islands.

Address: Rue de la Possession, Victoria, Seychelles

ECC-WORLDWIDE   "MONSTROUS PARADISE" 2025

The photos that the European Cultural Centre- Worldwide exhibit are all made by the famous Japanese artist NobuyoshiAraki. He lives in Tokyo and is 85 years old.  
Araki became world famous, mainly because of the very personal photos of his life with the naked Japanese women he used to like so much. But his work developed and, especially in the last 15 years, he was able to add and implement critical thoughts in his work. That resulted into photos that do not always show naked Japanese women tied up with ropes, hanging from the ceiling. But his wish to implement additional intellectual values in his work resulted in fantastic photo series and very special projects.

The exhibition is called "Monstrous Paradise". The photos are a comment of Araki on life in Tokyo and his own life as well. These photos are not only aesthetically fantastic but have also a much deeper meaning.
The origin of this photo project goes back to 1999. Rene Rietmeyer, from the European Cultural Centre, met with Araki at the opening of his exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, and they discussed a photo project. Years passed and In the meantime Rene created and published several art projects with other world-famous artists. 

However, he always remembered the talks with Araki and the project that they wanted to make. Many of the Art Projects that Rene created had in common that naked women were part of his projects, and it seemed no more than natural to try to organize photo sessions with Araki, whereby women would be naked again.

In 2015 Rene agreed to meet Araki in Tokyo, with two models. As a gift, they had brought two little toy animals with them. Rene knew that Araki has a big collection of of all kinds of toy monsters and dolls. During the meeting Araki explained that he did not want to make photos of naked women anymore, but he wanted the little monsters, combined with flowers. The little monsters will represent the models, he explained. Right there he seemed to invision the photo project already, clearly in his head, and he called it: “Monstrous Paradise”.

Eventually after a too long silence, Araki did send Rene an email in January 2018 with very good news: Araki had finally finished the series. Seeing the images, it was understood why Araki had needed so long, each image showed a very carefully arranged setting, his fantasies, a special way of presenting stories so typical for Araki.

Araki had taken very good care for this project, he had taken it extremely seriously. Now it was up to Rene, to make the quality publication he had promised Araki and to present Araki’s latest works, “Monstrous Paradise”, to a larger public.

The reason that this world-class exhibition is shown here at the National Gallery, is that Nina and Rene would love to stimulate and support the cultural self-awareness and the cultural development from all Seychellois by confronting them with art, from all over the world.
Contemporary art from people from very different cultures, is often very difficult to like, it is a learning process, an intellectual challenge. It is often not important anymore if an artwork is beautiful or pleasing to look at, much more important than that, is the message that the artwork wants to tell you.
An important message, not with words, but this time, here today, with photos.