Gallery Tours:
WAVE: Currents in Japanese Graphic Arts

This event is fully booked.

Experience the diversity of expression within Japanese graphic arts with a guided tour of the exhibition WAVE led by artists and co-curators Hiro Sugiyama and Takahashi Kintarō along with Japan House London Programming Director Simon Wright.

Brought to London by Sugiyama and Takahashi, WAVE presents works by a selection of some of Japan’s most significant graphic artists today, introducing many of them to the UK for the first time.

During the tour, which reveals behind-the-scenes insights into the curation of the exhibition, guests can learn more about some of the 60 featured artists, their inspirations and favoured techniques, while also discovering important aesthetic currents in Japanese graphic art such as heta-uma or photorealism.

Each tour will last 45 minutes and will begin in front of the Gallery on Japan House London's Lower Ground Floor promptly at the start time.

The exhibition WAVE: Currents in Japanese Graphic Arts is on display in the Gallery at Japan House London from 6 June until 22 October. 

About the Tour Leaders

Hiro Sugiyama

Co-curator of the WAVE exhibition at Japan House London and organizer of the WAVE exhibitions at 3331 Arts Chiyoda (2018–2022), Sugiyama is an artist and art director. In 1997, he was a central figure in the establishment of the creative collective Enlightenment. His work is exhibited in fine art shows worldwide, and he also curates exhibitions himself, publishes free newspapers and art books, and continues to produce original work in the fields of graphic design and advertising. He is highly regarded in the field of moving images, such as music videos and VJing, and his broader creative pursuits further extend into three-dimensional works and spatial productions. He has been an active VJ since 1994, performing with big-name artists around the globe, and appearing on the bill at major festivals, parties and art shows in many countries. Recent work includes joining m-flo’s COSMICOLOR and Ōsawa Shinichi’s THE ONE tours as VJ, and providing live footage for AMURO Namie, BOA, MEG and others.  

Takahashi Kintarō

Co-curator of the WAVE exhibition at Japan House London and organizer of the WAVE exhibitions at 3331 Arts Chiyoda (2018–2022), Takahashi has worked as a freelance illustrator and art director since graduating from the Department of Graphic Design at Tama Art University.  His work ranges from illustration (commercial advertisements for print and screen, displays, fashion, etc.) through to animated films for children. In the 1980s and 1990s, he also worked under the name HIT STUDIO as an art director for Takarajima and other culture and fashion magazines. Takahashi is involved in event and exhibition curation, and publication planning, as well as helping to coordinate concerts by several internationally known musicians, while performing himself as a member of the art-oriented noise band OBANDOS.  More recently, he supervised the exhibition 70 CREATORS’ SEVEN at Parco Museum and acted as general editor for the associated book (pub. Genkōsha), alongside planning & directing the exhibition CONTEMPORARY CHIC at the Hankyū Umeda gallery.