Hiroshi Senju

Born in 1958 in Tokyo, Hiroshi Senju is one of the most celebrated Japanese painters, known for his large-scale monochromatic depictions of waterfalls. Channeling the rich tradition of Japanese landscape painting, he combines ancient techniques with the gestural language of modern Abstract Expressionism to express the majesty of nature as well as its serenity. Senju is also recognized as one of the few contemporary masters of the thousand-year-old nihonga style of painting, which uses pigments made from ground minerals, shells and corals.

Senju studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts, graduating in 1984, and by the 1990s he was almost exclusively painting waterfalls. He represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1995 and received an Honorable Mention, becoming the first Asian artist to receive this award. He was later awarded the Foreign Minister’s Commendation by the Japanese government for his contributions to fine art, and in 2017 he received the Isamu Noguchi Award. Senju’s works can be found in museums around the world, including at the eponymous Hiroshi Senju Museum in Karuizawa, which opened in his honor in 2017, and he has also completed numerous public installations including at the Zen Buddhist temple Juko-in, Haneda Airport in Tokyo and the Benesse Art Site of Naoshima Island. Most recently, he completed two monumental paintings for Kongobuji Temple, a commission to celebrate Koyasan’s 1,200th anniversary. The artist currently lives and works in New York.

-       Fusuma Paintings for Kongobuji Temple, Koyasan, 2018, Murals on paper sliding doors, sizes variable, shown at Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art & Design and touring multiple Japanese museums

-       Ryujin I and Ryujin II, 2014, Acrylic and fluorescent pigments on Japanese mulberry paper, 94 1/2 x 449 inches each (240 x 1140.2 cm), paintings that innovate within his  recurring waterfall theme

-     Cascading Cherry Blossoms of Miharu, 2013