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Tsuyoshi Anzai

Tsuyoshi Anzai was born in Tokyo in 1987 and is now based in Chiba. He graduated from the Department of Musical Creativity and the Environment at Tokyo University of the Arts, where he also completed graduate studies in new media. In his practice, he uses plastic everyday items and structures to explore the relationship between humans and objects, and investigate the arbitrary connection between function and form.

His major exhibitions include the solo show Aperto 12 ANZAI Tsuyoshi Poly- (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2020) and group show Extended Present – Transient Realities (Ludwig Museum, Budapest, 2022). Anzai spent a year at Berlin’s Künstlerhaus Bethanien from 2020 to 2021 on a grant from the Pola Art Foundation. He has also participated in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Core Residency Program (2015–17).

His recent practice has seen him engage with projects that rethink the relationship between human desire and plastic as a material through photography and installations about microplastics. Anzai won the Regional Grant Award at Fujifilm’s GFX Challenge Grant Program 2024 and was also selected for that year’s Project to Support Emerging Media Arts Creators, organized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. He currently teaches part-time at the Tokyo University of the Arts Department of Musical Creativity and the Environment.

Past works

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Web Site（Stop MAKE-ing Machine）
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Projects by this artist

Giant Micro Plastic

Giant Micro Plastic is an art project that turns microplastics into giant sculptural objects, making visible something that is ordinarily hard for us to see. Plastic waste is a chronic problem in contemporary society. Being invisible to the naked eye, though, microplastics don’t feel real and this tends to stall progress in the debate about them. In Giant Micro Plastic, Tsuyoshi Anzai uses a microlens to photograph closeups of microplastics collected from the coast, and then reconstructs their texture and shape in the form of massive papercraft sculptures. Through this process, the project aims to emphasize the surprising beauty and alienness of microplastics, and to encourage new awareness among viewers of microplastics as an invisible problem. In the participatory aspect of the project, members of the public can take part in collecting the microplastic samples and workshops in partnership with local young people and beach cleanup volunteers, creating opportunities to deepen people’s interest in environmental issues. Giant Micro Plastic is a synthesis of art with education about the environment, attempting to understand a familiar problem from a fresh perspective. [Types of citizen involvement] Workshop participation, Exhibition viewing

Exhibitions & events by This Artist

Fun for children No extra fee required No reservation required Quick (max 90 min)

Tsuyoshi Anzai

Giant Micro Plastic

Microplastics collected from the coast become large sculptures. An art project that makes you think about the environment.

Image Memorial Hall