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Installation view from "heavenly peach" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2020 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara photo by Kenji Takahashi -
Installation view from "heavenly peach" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2020 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara photo by Kenji Takahashi -
Installation view from "heavenly peach" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2020 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara photo by Kenji Takahashi -
Installation view from "heavenly peach" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2020 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara photo by Kenji Takahashi -
遺品 2017 acrylic on canvas 193.3 x 130.2 cm ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
Emily 2019 acrylic on canvas 100.3 x 80.5 cm ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
Sweet-ex 2019 acrylic on canvas 80.6 x 53.3 cm ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "fantasy land" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2017 ©Masahiko Kuwahara photo by Kenji Takahashi -
Installation view from "fantasy land" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2017 ©Masahiko Kuwahara photo by Kenji Takahashi -
Installation view from "fantasy land" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2017 ©Masahiko Kuwahara photo by Kenji Takahashi -
Installation view from "fantasy land" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2017 ©Masahiko Kuwahara photo by Kenji Takahashi -
Untitled 2017 acrylic on canvas 33.3 × 24.2 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Untitled 2017 acrylic on canvas 53.0 × 53.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Untitled 2017 acrylic on canvas 100 × 100 cm©Masahiko Kuwahara -
果て The End 2016 acrylic on canvas 116.7 × 91.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Untitled 2016 acrylic on canvas 18.0 × 14.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Bright Days" 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2015 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Bright Days" 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2015 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Bright Days" 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2015 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Bright Days" 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2015 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
福音 Gospel 2014 acrylic on canvas 145.5 × 145.5 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
めぐみちゃんの世 Megumi’s world 2014 acrylic on canvas 19.2 × 27.4 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
静かな所 the quiet place 2012 acrylic on canvas 116.7 × 91.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Only in Dreams" Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2012 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Only in Dreams" Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2012 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Only in Dreams" Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2012 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Only in Dreams" Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2012 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
商業施設 Shopping Mall 2012 oil on canvas 194.0 × 194.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
夢のなかのハニー Honey in Dreams 2011 oil on canvas 91.0 × 91.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
みずいろ Light Blue 2012 oil on canvas 145.5 × 112.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
午後 Afternoon 2011 oil on canvas 41.0 × 41.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Sweet and Desserts" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2010 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Sweet and Desserts" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2010 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Sweet and Desserts" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2010 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Sweet and Desserts" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2010 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
*4 candy box 2009 acrylic on canvas 162.0 × 162.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
貝 shell 2009 acrylic on canvas 33.3 × 24.2 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
夏の日 summer days 2013 acrylic on canvas 145.5 × 145.5 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
princess room 2009 acrylic on canvas 100.0 × 65.2 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
*2 Honey White 2008 acrylic on canvas 162.0 × 162.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
窓明かり Light through a window 2008 oil on canvas 130.5 × 97.0 cm ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
窓 2008 acrylic on canvas 18.0 × 18.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
部屋 2008 oil pastel on paper 32.0 × 41.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Candy Box 2008 Resin, clay, shell, flower and etc h.37.0 × w.25.0 × d.25.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Candy Box 2008 Resin-clay, pearl, hair, pearl, flower etc h.50.0 × w.30.0 × d.22.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
光 light 2007 oil on canvas 60.6 × 50.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
神秘 spiritual 2007 oil on canvas 22.0 × 27.3 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
New Town 2005 oil on canvas 33.3 × 33.3 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Bitter Sea 2004 acrylic on paper 134.0 × 101.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Land Development" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2005 ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Land Development" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2005 ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Land Development" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2005 ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Depuration -Dunlin in Yatsu 2005 oil on canvas 116.7 × 91.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Depuration -Institution 2005 oil on canvas 116.7 × 91.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Acrylamid 2002 oil on canvas 100.0 × 80.3 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
VACANT LOT 2001 oil on canvas 112.0 × 145.5 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Life and Pus" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2001 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "Life and Pus" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2001 ©︎Masahiko Kuwahara -
その後 After That 2000 oil on canvas 45.5 × 65.3 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Dots 2000 acrylic on canvas 91.0 × 116.7 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Room 2000 acrylic on canvas 45.5 × 53.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Installation view from "view" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 1999 ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Power Transmission Line 1999 acrlic on canvas 45.5 × 53.2 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
重金属 heavy metal 1999 oil on canvas 97.0 × 130.3 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
経済価値 Economic Value 1999 acrylic on canvas 27.5 × 22.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
BEACH 1999 acrylic on canvas 218.5 × 304.5 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
The Exchange 1998 oil on canvas 65.2 × 53.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Cornea (artificial world) 1996 oil on paper 60.7 × 72.8 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Clean Meat 1996 oil on canvas 130.3 × 162.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Vinyl Dream (bear) 1995 oil on canvas 24.5 × 33.5 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Vinyl Maria (top) 1995 oil on canvas 24.5 × 33.5 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara -
Vinyl Maria (bottom) 1995 oil on canvas 41.0 × 32.0 cm ©Masahiko Kuwahara
Born in Tokyo in 1959, and passed away in April 2021.
He held twelve solo exhibitions with Tomio Koyama Gallery: “Abandoned Child” (1997), “View” (1999), “Life and Pus” (2001), “Land Development” (2005), “In the End of Summer” (2007), “Window” (2008), “Sweet and Desserts” (2010), “Only in Dream” (2012), “Bright Days” (2015), “Summer Days” (2019) and “heavenly peach” (2021). He also held two solo exhibitions at Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica, the United States, in 2001 and 2008.
His major group exhibitions include “TOKYO POP” (Hiratsuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa, 1996), “The Japanese Experience – Inevitable” (Ursula Blickle Stiftung Foundation, Kraichtal, Germany, 2002; traveled to Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria in 2004), “POPjack: Warhol to Murakami” (Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, 2002), “Japan Pop” (Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki, 2005), “Portrait Session” (NADiff, Tokyo / Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, 2007) and “Pathos and Small Narratives” (Gana Art Center, Seoul, Korea, 2011).
Kuwahara started exhibiting his work in the 1980s. He consistently expressed a sense of absurdity with regard to scenery and humanity being changed by modernization. Inorganic buildings and sceneries created by Japan’s economic prosperity during the 1960s and 70s, dolls and toys that were consumed and abandoned to anonymity, and uncanny creatures living by polluted water, are the primary scenery in which Kuwahara himself grew up. He depicted their sadness in light and humorous ways, assimilated with pale color tones and blurred outlines, suggesting our contemporary feelings of fleeting emptiness, dullness, and loneliness, yet also enabling us to sense a mysterious kind of happiness.
Solo Exhibitions
2022 | “Masahiko Kuwahara (1959-2021) ” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
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2020 | “heavenly peach” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
2019 | “Summer Days” 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
2017 | “fantasy land” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
2015 | “Bright Days” 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
2012 | “Drawings; Hana to Yume” GALLERY ZERO, Osaka, Japan “Only in Dreams” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
2011 | GALLERY ZERO, Osaka, Japan |
2010 | “Sweet and Desserts” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
2008 | Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, USA “Window” Tomio Koyama Gallery Kyoto, Japan |
2007 | “In the End of Summer” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
2005 | “Land Development” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
2004 | Galerie 20.21, Essen, Germany |
2003 | “Animals” TKGY at lammfromm, Tokyo, Japan |
2001 | Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, USA “Trim” Galleria Micia, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan “Life and Pus” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
2000 | “Beautiful Dream” Canvas International Art, Amsterdam, Netherlands “Blue Sky” Gallery Zero, Osaka, Japan “Beach” Gallery Koto, Okayama, Japan |
1999 | “View” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
1998 | “Rainbow Color” Gallery Zero, Osaka, Japan |
1997 | “Abandoned Child” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan “Shadeless Beach” Gallery Zero, Osaka, Japan |
1996 | “Forgive and Forget” Gallery Zero, Osaka, Japan |
1995 | “Vinyl Dream” AKI-EX Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
1990 | Tamura Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
1984 | Tamura Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
Group Exhibitions
2021 | “FLOWERS & BIRDS” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
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2020 | “Face” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan “Circulator of the Yoichi Umezu curation exhibition full Freon Tal nude” Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store Main Building 6F Contemporary Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
2019 | Parplume Gallery, Kanagawa, Japan |
2018 | “Treasure box of Contemporary Art” Oita Prefectural Art Museum, Japan |
2015 | “Yuka Kashihara, Hideaki Kawashima, Makiko Kudo, Toru Kuwakubo, Masahiko Kuwahara, Atsushi Fukui” 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
2014 | “Group exhibition by Tomio Koyama Gallery” TOLOT/heuristic SHINONOME, Tokyo, Japan |
2013 | “Cho-Kyoto 2013, Contemporary Art @Today's Machiya in Kyoto” Today's Machiya in Kyoto, Model House Exhibition Place KYOMO, Kyoto, Japan |
2012 | “Masahiko Kuwahara, Yoshitomo Nara, Hiroshi Sugito” Tomio Koyama Gallery Singapore, Singapore |
2011 | “Temporary Exhibition: Art in an Office” Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan “Happy Mind - my view” MISAKO & ROSEN, Tokyo, Japan “Pathos and Small Narratives” Gana Art Center, Seoul, Korea |
2008 | Hakodate Museum of Art, Hokkaido, Japan |
2007 | “MIXED SIGNALS” Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York, NY, USA “Portrait Session” NADiff, Tokyo/ Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan “magical museum tour” Tokyo Wonder Site, Hongo, Tokyo, Japan “Summer Show” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
2006 | “a magical art life” Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan “10th Anniversary” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
2005 | “Japan Pop” Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland |
2004 | “The Japanese Experience -Inevitable” Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria “The Secret Forest of Princess Knight” M.Y.Art Prospects, New York, NY, USA |
2003 | “Japan Rising” Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Lake Worth, FL, USA |
2002 | “Emotional Site” Shokuryo Building -Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan “The Japanese Experience -Inevitable” Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Kraichtal, Germany “POPjack: Warhol to Murakami” Museum of Contemporay Art, Denver, CO, USA |
2001 | “Playground” Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon, Portugal |
2000 | “Drawn From Life” Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY, USA “Yume no Ato” Haus am Waldsee, Berlin/ Staati Kunsthalle Barden-Barden, Germany “Landscape My Ass” Vedanta Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA |
1999 | “Sampling” Ronald Feldman Fine Art, New York, NY, USA “Soap” Gallery Zero, Osaka, Japan Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA |
1996 | “Love Song” Gallery Zero, Osaka, Japan “TOKYO POP” Hiratsuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan |
1993 | Maki-Tamura Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
1991 | Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Gallery Sarge, Tokyo, Japan |
1983 | Gallery Parergon, Tokyo, Japan |
Public Collections
Flowerman Collection
Olbricht Collection
Toyota Art Collection
Books
“The Japanese Experience: Inevitable”
Takashi Murakami, Kaikai Kiki, Aya Takano, Masahiko Kuwahara, Yoshitomo Nara, Hiroshi Sugito, Shintaro Miyake, Jun Hasegawa / editor: Margrit Brehm / Hatje Cantz 2003

Masahiko Kuwahara (1959-2021)
January 6 - January 8, 2022
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY

“FLOWERS & BIRDS” Masako Ando, Koichi Enomoto, Suna Fujita, Heihachiro Fukuda, Yuichi Inoue, Hideaki Kawashima, Makiko Kudo, Masahiko Kuwahara, Shintaro Miyake, Yuko Murata, Yu Nishimura, Ellie Omiya, Rieko Otake, Yuko Someya, Kenzo Taruishi
July 16 - August 21, 2021
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY

“Face” DAN ASHER, KAORU ARIMA, HIDEAKI KAWASHIMA, NAOKI KOIDE, MASAHIKO KUWAHARA, SATOKO NACHI, KOJI NAKAZONO, SATOSHI OHNO, KATSUZO SATOMI, DIEGO SINGH, SHOOSHIE SULAIMAN
October 3 - October 31, 2020
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY

“heavenly peach”
July 10 - August 8, 2020
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY

「夏の日」
January 10 - January 28, 2019
8/ ART GALLERY/ TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY

「fantasy land」
June 23 - July 22, 2017
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY

A Drawing Show
July 9 - July 23, 2016
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY

Group Exhibition “Yuka Kashihara, Hideaki Kawashima, Makiko Kudo, Toru Kuwakubo, Masahiko Kuwahara, Atsushi Fukui”
August 19 - September 7, 2015
8/ ART GALLERY/ TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY

Bright Days
May 20 - June 8, 2015
8/ ART GALLERY/ TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY

Only in Dreams
October 6 - November 10, 2012
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY

Sweet and Desserts
February 20 - March 27, 2010
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY 7TH FLOOR

Window
November 20 - December 27, 2008
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY KYOTO

In the End of Summer
September 1 - September 22, 2007
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY

Land Development
September 10 - October 1, 2005
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY 7TH FLOOR

“Life and Pus”
December 7 - December 28, 2001
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY(SAGA-CHO SHOKURYO BUILDING)

View
July 6 - July 24, 1999
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY

“Abandoned Child”
March 7 - April 1, 1997
TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY(SAGA-CHO SHOKURYO BUILDING)

Group Exhibition “Circulator of the Yoichi Umezu curation exhibition full Freon Tal nude” Mitsukoshi Contemporary Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
June 10 - June 29, 2020

Group Exhibition at Parplume Gallery, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan
April 13 - April 27, 2019

Group Exhibition “Treasure box of Contemporary Art” Oita Prefectural Art Museum, Oita, Japan
December 8, 2018 - January 20, 2019

Solo Exhibition, GALLERY ZERO, Osaka, Japan
January 11 - January 29, 2011