In the new body of work Senju has created especially for London, the artist breathes new energy into his iconic black-and-white falls, suffusing them with color. Seen together, these immersive works celebrate a universal human experience—the power of the natural world to evoke awe and wonder.
Senju has been exploring the sublime power of nature for more than 30 years. He began painting the waterfall image in the 1990s and today they are in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Art Institute of Chicago, where a site-specific waterfall was recently showcased in a gallery designed by Pritzker Prize winner Tadao Ando.
About the exhibition, Sundaram Tagore says, “Although I have deep-rooted ties to London and we have always had a strong client base here, there is simply no substitute for having an enduring physical presence. I believe the best way to experience art—particularly the kind of tactile, process driven art that we show—is to stand in front of it. We couldn’t be more delighted to bring Hiroshi Senju and our global group of artists to this dynamic, international city.”
About the artist
Hiroshi Senju (Tokyo, 1958). The first Asian artist to receive an Honorable Mention Award at the Venice Biennale (1995) and has participated in numerous exhibitions including The New Way of Tea, curated by Alexandra Munroe, at the Japan Society and the Asia Society in New York, 2002; Paintings on Fusuma at the Tokyo National Museum, 2003; and Frontiers Reimagined at the 2015 Venice Biennale. He was recently awarded the Foreign Minister’s Commendation from the Japanese government for contributions to art. In 2017, he was honored with the Isamu Noguchi Award and in 2021, he was awarded the 77th Imperial Prize and the Japan Art Academy Prize from the Japan Art Academy.
Public installations include seventy-seven murals at Juko-in, a Zen Buddhist temple in Japan, and monumental waterfalls at Tokyo International Airport (Haneda). The Benesse Art Site of Naoshima Island houses two large-scale installations. Most recently, two monumental paintings commissioned by the Kongobuji Temple at Koyasan, a UNESCO World Heritage site, were on view in major museums throughout Japan prior to their installation and consecration in October 2020.
Senju’s work is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Art Institute of Chicago; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan; Yamatane Museum of Art, Tokyo; Tokyo University of the Arts; and the Kushiro Art Museum, Hokkaido. In 2009, Skira Editore published a monograph of his work titled Hiroshi Senju. The Hiroshi Senju Museum Karuizawa in Japan opened in 2011.
