Sundaram Tagore Gallery is pleased to present Japan’s most celebrated artist, Hiroshi Senju, in his largest North American exhibition, Haruka Naru Aoi Hikari (New Light From Afar). It is a series of new works that continues Senju’s theme of water, and employs a technique of painting with fluorescent pigments and illuminating the work with black light, turning soft white waterfalls to striking blue. The exhibition runs from December 13 to January 19, with an opening cocktail reception on December 13 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Senju has taken the traditional Japanese Nihonga painting style and imbued it with a contemporary language and aesthetic. Gallery Director Sundaram Tagore remarked on Senju’s new work: “It is dynamic. His paintings become electric blue under the light – giving them a new life. He is using a special chemical paint that will allow the paintings to move from day into night, which continuously transforms the exhibition.”
“As an artist, Senju is revered in Japan as the country’s most influential and publicly regarded artist. His work is extraordinary. He is also an educator who spawned and influenced an entire generation of artists” said Tagore.
This is Senju’s largest North American show. Several of the works are monumental in scale with the largest being 33 feet long. Senju’s art has a simple immediacy—bold, glowing lines flow rhythmically, and instill a powerful calm. His paintings evoke a sense of peace.
Senju comes from a family of artists; he is also a writer, an educator and currently the President of Kyoto University of Art and Design. He has been awarded numerous prizes including the Kawakita Michiaki Prize and Okada Mokichi Award. Senju was the first Asian artist to receive an individual fine arts award at the Venice Biennale for his acclaimed Waterfall paintings in 1995. Museums that house his work include the Los Angeles County Museum of Contemporary Art, the San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Asian Art, the National Museum of Art, Osaka, the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, and the Toyama Museum of Contemporary Art in Kushiro, Japan.