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Opening on Wed – Aug 7 at The National Art Center, Tokyo, one of the leading art venues in the Japanese capital, is Tanaami’s first major retrospective. The artist is known for his vibrant, colour-infused works which reflect his childhood memories of World War II and the impact of American pop culture he encountered after the war ended. The Tokyoite began his prolific career as a designer while enrolled at Musashino Art University‘s highly prestigious College of Art and Design, and in 1975 he became the first art director of Playboy magazine’s Japanese edition..

Tanaami became a leading figure in Japan’s underground art scene primarily on the strength of his work in magazines and advertisements. From the 1960s until today, he has produced paintings, collages, sculptures, animations, experimental video pieces, and installations, applying methodologies and techniques he developed in the design field. Defying confinement to specific genres or conventional rules, he has had a significant impact in an art-historical context. The retrospective, entitled Keiichi Tanaami – Adventures in Memory, is centred around the theme ‘memory’, and presents a vast selection of works of the artist, including archival materials from past decades, tracing the entirety of his career of more than 60 years.