BIGEI

Kenji Kitagawa – The Angle of Peril
SHUMOKU GALLERY is pleased to present Kenji Kitagawa – The Angle of Peril.

This exhibition will feature approximately 50 works, including Kitagawa's recent focus—object art—as well as collages, photographs, and rare early copperplate prints.

Under the theme "The Angle of Peril," the exhibition showcases a compelling body of new work created with a consistently strong aesthetic sensibility, introducing the vibrant and current practice of Kenji Kitagawa, a long-standing figure at the forefront of the Japanese art world. We warmly invite you to experience this exhibition.

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Profile
Born in Fukui Prefecture in 1952, Kenji Kitagawa completed the graduate program at Tama Art University. He studied copperplate printmaking under Tetsurō Komai and began his career with the support of Shikō Munakata and Masuo Ikeda.

In 1975, he received the Bridgestone Museum Prize at the Contemporary Japanese Art Exhibition. The following year, he was invited to the Tokyo International Print Biennale (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo). In 1981, he exhibited at the Ljubljana International Biennial of Graphic Arts, and in 1985, was invited to the exhibition Adam of the Future (curated by Mutsuo Takahashi), alongside Yuichi Inoue (calligraphy), Simon Yotsuya (doll art), and Shigeru Ban (architecture). In 1990, he traveled to Europe as an overseas art trainee sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

He received praise for his copperplate prints from Jim Dine and for his object works from Christo, and he is now considered a leading figure in both fields. In addition to printmaking and object art, he also works in oil painting, collage, photography, poetry, and criticism. His works, infused with sharp poetic sensibility and refined design, occupy a unique position in the field of contemporary art.

In 2008, Kitagawa's works themed on Arthur Rimbaud were selected for exhibition at the Arthur Rimbaud Museum in France, shown alongside works by Picasso, Klee, Miró, Giacometti, Jim Dine, and Robert Mapplethorpe. That same year, he was featured in LE GRAND BLEU D’ARTHUR RIMBAUD (FVWEDITION) by Claude Jeancolas. In 2010, he was invited to exhibit at the RIMBAUD MANIA exhibition at the Paris Municipal Library of History. In 2011, the Fukui Fine Arts Museum held a large-scale retrospective Kenji Kitagawa – The Romanesque in the Mirror featuring around 200 works. In 2013, he published the illustrated poetry book Whirlpool Café or One Hour in Hell with poet Kiwao Nomura (Shichōsha). In 2014, he was invited to the exhibition The Absolute Métier – Conditions of a Masterpiece (Musée Hamaguchi Yōzō Yamasa Collection).

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Public Collections
His works are held in numerous institutions, including:

• Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

• Bridgestone Museum of Art

• The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama

• Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum

• The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama

• Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts

• Urawa Art Museum

• Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts

• Fukui Fine Arts Museum

• Higashihiroshima City Museum of Art

• The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama

• Tokushima Modern Art Museum

• Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum

• Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto

• Ōita Prefectural Art Museum

• Shoto Museum of Art

• Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art

• Suzaka Hanga Museum

• Takamatsu City Museum of Art

• The National Museum of Art, Osaka

• Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum

• Masuo Ikeda Museum of Art

• Arthur Rimbaud Museum (France), among others.

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