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Biography

New York-based painter Hiroshi Senju (b. 1958, Tokyo) is renowned worldwide for his sublime waterfall and cliff images, which are often monumental in scale. He combines a minimalist visual language rooted in Abstract Expressionism with elements of traditional Japanese painting. 

 

Hiroshi Senju was the first Asian artist to receive an Honorable Mention Award at the Venice Biennale (1995), and has participated in numerous notable exhibitions including The New Way of Tea, curated by Alexandra Munroe, at the Japan Society and Asia Society, New York, 2002; Paintings on Fusuma at the Tokyo National Museum, 2003; and Frontiers Reimagined at the Venice Biennale, 2015. In 2021, Senju produced a monumental, site-specific fluorescent waterfall installation for the Art Institute of Chicago. It was on view for eight months in a gallery in the Asian wing designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando. The fifty-foot wide folding screens are now part of the museum’s permanent collection. In 2023 two specially commissioned waterfall paintings were installed in the United States Embassy in Tokyo. A waterfall painting is currently on view in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

 

Among his many honors, Senju was awarded the Foreign Minister’s Commendation from the Japanese government for contributions to art in 2017, and in the same year, was honored with the Isamu Noguchi Award. In 2020, he was awarded the 77th Imperial Prize and Japan Art Academy Prize. In 2022 he was elected to the Japan Art Academy for outstanding achievements in artistic activities, the youngest artist to be so honored. 
 
Notable public installations include seventy-seven murals at Juko-in, a sub-temple of Daitoku-ji, a Zen Buddhist temple in Japan, and multiple monumental waterfalls at Tokyo International Airport (Haneda). The Benesse Art Site of Naoshima Island houses two large-scale installations. The artist’s monumental cliff and waterfall paintings for the Kongobuji Temple at Koyasan—a UNESCO World Heritage Site and sacred Buddhist monument—traveled to museums throughout Japan before being consecrated and installed in 2020. Assouline released a lavish coffee-table volume featuring 100 color photographs documenting this historic project in 2022.
 
Senju’s work is in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; 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 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.
 
Hiroshi Senju lives and works in New York.

Paintings by Hiroshi Senju acquired for the American Embassy in Tokyo
Acquisition
Paintings by Hiroshi Senju acquired for the American Embassy in Tokyo

We are pleased to announce that two of gallery artist Hiroshi Senju’s works, Waterfall and Waterfall on Colors, 2023, were acquired by Art in Embassies in 2023 for the American Embassy in Tokyo.

A painting by Hiroshi Senju is now in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London
Museum Acquisition
A painting by Hiroshi Senju is now in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London

Waterfall on Colors, 2023, is on view in the museum’s Toshiba Gallery of Japanese Art through 2024.

Hiroshi Senju Elected a Member of the Japan Art Academy
AWARD
Hiroshi Senju Elected a Member of the Japan Art Academy

In 2022, the Japan Art Academy (headed by Shuji Takashina) announced that it had elected Hiroshi Senju for his outstanding achievements in artistic activities. 

In 2022, Assouline released a lavish coffee-table volume featuring 100 color photographs of the Kogobuji Temple atop Japan’s Mount Koya and the monumental cliff and waterfall paintings Hiroshi Senju created for the sacred site. The book is a tribute to both Hiroshi Senju and Kūkai, the Japanese Buddhist monk credited with founding the Shingon sect of Buddhism. 

Hiroshi Senju at Art Insitute of Chicago
Museum Exhibition
Hiroshi Senju at Art Insitute of Chicago

Hiroshi Senju's work is on view at the Art Institute of Chicago from November 13, 2021 – June 26, 2022.

 

Senju produced a monumental site-specific Waterfall for a gallery in the Asian wing designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando. The 50-foot-wide folding screens are now part of the museum’s permanent collection.

 

Hiroshi Senju Honored with Japan Art Academy Prize and Imperial Prize
Award
Hiroshi Senju Honored with Japan Art Academy Prize and Imperial Prize

Hiroshi Senju was awarded the 77th Imperial Prize and the Japan Art Academy Prize in 2021. The award has been presented annually since 1941 by the Japan Art Academy, one of the most respected art institutions in the country. It recognizes individuals who have made distinguished contributions to the advancement of art.

 

Hiroshi Senju Dedication Ceremony at Kongobuji Temple, Japan
News
Hiroshi Senju Dedication Ceremony at Kongobuji Temple, Japan

Hiroshi Senju is honored at the dedication ceremony celebrating the permanent installaiton of two monumental paintings he created for Kongobuji Temple at Mount Koya in Japan.

Hiroshi Senju at the Brooklyn Museum
Museum Exhibition
Hiroshi Senju at the Brooklyn Museum

Hiroshi Senju's work is on view at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 2019. After a six-year renovation, the museum reopened its Asian Gallery with an installation of artworks from China and Japan from their permanent collection, including Senju’s Waterfall, 2012

Click here for info.

Hiroshi Senju at the Kobe Artists Museum and Kobe Fashion Museum
Museum Exhibition
Hiroshi Senju at the Kobe Artists Museum and Kobe Fashion Museum

Hiroshi Senju’s work will be on view at the Kobe Artists Museum and Kobe Fashion Museum from September 14 to November 4, 2019, in an exhibition commemorating the completion of two monumental paintings for Kongobuji Temple at Koyasan.

Hiroshi Senju at the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design
Museum Exhibition
Hiroshi Senju at the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design

We are pleased to announce that Hiroshi Senju’s work will be on view at the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design until July 20, 2018, in an exhibition commemorating the completion of two monumental paintings for Kongobuji Temple at Koyasan. The temple is a sacred site in Japanese Buddhism, founded by the priest Kobo Daishi/Kukai in the early Heian era and a UNESCO World Heritage site. The works—a waterfall and a cliff—were commissioned to celebrate Koyasan’s 1,200th anniversary. Click here for more information.

Hiroshi Senju at the Metropolitan Museum
Museum Exhibition
Hiroshi Senju at the Metropolitan Museum

We are pleased to announce that due to popular demand, Hiroshi Senju’s Shrine of the Water God is on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art until January 21, 2019. It is part of the exhibition The Poetry of Nature: Edo Paintings from the Fishbein-Bender Collection. The pair of six-panel, twelve-foot screens, part of the museum’s permanent collection, is installed in Gallery 230 of the museum's Asian Art Galleries. 

Work by Miya Ando and Hiroshi Senju at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Museum Exhibition
Work by Miya Ando and Hiroshi Senju at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Work by gallery artists Miya Ando and Hiroshi Senju is on view in Atmosphere in Japanese Painting, from September 15, 2017 – February 4, 2018.

 

Click here for more about the exhibition.

Hiroshi Senju Honored by Noguchi Museum
Award
Hiroshi Senju Honored by Noguchi Museum
May 2017

Each year, the Noguchi Museum presents the Isamu Noguchi Award to two individuals who share Noguchi’s spirit of innovation, global consciousness and commitment to East/West cultural exchange. We congratulate gallery artist Hiroshi Senju, recipient and architect John Pawson of the 2017 Isamu Noguchi Award for his enduring commitment to these themes. The award will be presented at the Noguchi Museum's annual benefit on Tuesday, May 16, 2017.

 

Click here for more about the Noguchi benefit.

Click here for more about the award.

Painting by Hiroshi Senju added to The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection.
Museum Exhibition
Painting by Hiroshi Senju added to The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection.

We are pleased to announce that The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has added Hiroshi Senju's Suijingū (Shrine of the Water God) to its permanent collection. This twelve-panel, twenty-four-foot screen is on view in Room 230 of the museum's Asian Art Galleries until May 14, 2017.

Hiroshi Senju awarded the Japanese Foreign Minister's Commendation
Award
Hiroshi Senju awarded the Japanese Foreign Minister's Commendation

Congratulations to Hiroshi Senju, who has been awarded the Japanese Foreign Minister's Commendation for his contributions to the deeper understanding of Japanese art around the world through his internationally recognized oeuvre. The award was presented in New York by Ambassador Reiichiro Takahashi, Consul General of Japan in New York in November 2016. The Foreign Minister's Commendation is awarded annually to individuals and groups with outstanding achievements to acknowledge their contributions to the promotion of friendship between Japan and other countries and areas. 

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