S h i n j i I h a r a ｜ Painter and contemporary artist
Shinji Ihara is a painter and contemporary artist based in Hiroshima, Japan. Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1987, he received his MFA in Oil Painting from the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts.
Working primarily through painting, Ihara explores memory, relationships, and the position of the individual within society. Portraiture has been central to his practice, through which he examines the dynamics between seeing and being seen, presence and distance. In recent years, his practice has expanded beyond painting to include installation, text, objects, and spatial projects, reflecting an increasing interest in the social and contextual conditions surrounding artistic expression.
His major series include LIFE, which reflects on the self and those close to him; MEYOU, portraying people encountered online whose identities remain unknown; and Love Your Neighbor, a project originating from an encounter during a voyage to Antarctica that considers coexistence, distance, and empathy.
Alongside his individual practice, Ihara runs HDL＋, an artist-run space in Hiroshima. Through exhibitions, workshops, and drawing sessions, the space functions as a platform for sharing artistic processes and experimentation, while also exploring artist-led and collaborative modes of circulation and exchange.
Recently, Ihara has been engaged in YAMIICHI project, an ongoing project that reinterprets the historical postwar black markets of Hiroshima as a contemporary cultural and artistic practice. Through acts of making, exchanging, and opening spaces, the project questions how creative activity can emerge from everyday life and collective memory.
Starting from painting, Ihara continues to investigate the points at which personal memory intersects with place-based and historical narratives, seeking forms of expression that function as sites of encounter, circulation, and lived experience.
⚫︎Biography
1987 Born in Fukuoka, Japan
2010 BFA in Oil Painting of Hiroshima City University
2012 M.F.A in Oil Painting Materials and Techniques of Tokyo University of the Arts
⚫︎Solo Exhibition
2024 Shinji Ihara ″Abstract Concept″, KEN NAKAHASHI, Tokyo
2023 Shinji Ihara ″1111″, KEN NAKAHASHI, Tokyo（ART WEEK TOKYO 2023）
2021 Love Your Neighbor 2021, KEN NAKAHASHI, Tokyo
2020 Love Your Neighbor, Hiroshima Drawing Lab, Hiroshima
2018 MEYOU, KEN NAKAHASHI, Tokyo
2016 Hakata Gion Yamakasa Otoko E-zu, matchbaco, Tokyo
2015 RENDEZVOUS, matchbaco, Tokyo
2013 SINCE NOBODY SEES, Gallery Art Morimoto, Tokyo
⚫︎Group Exhibition
2026
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026, National Portrait Gallery, London
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer PORTRAIT AWARD 2025 and Exploring Identity, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, UK
Spectrum 20 years from now, Lapis Gallery, Hiroshima
2025
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025, National Portrait Gallery, London
OITA ART FESTIVAL 2025, ART PLAZA, Oita
35th Anniversary Exhibition, TAKANAWA GALLERY, Tokyo
AMPLIFIED ART vol.4, PALETTE GALLERY, Tokyo
A line drawn by chance, Hiroshima Drawing Lab, Hiroshima（Hiroshima Art Galleries Week 2025）
Lenz, SASAI FINE ARTS, Tokyo
Drawing Today, Morooka Seisakujo, Saitama
2024
Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2024, National Portrait Gallery, London
KAIKA AWARD TOKYO 2024, KAIKA TOKYO by THE SHARE HOTELS, Tokyo
Okubuka zine Okubuka book store, 339 museum shop counter, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima
Art Marché HIROSHIMA, Hiroshima Drawing Lab, Hiroshima
2023 Art in Book, Hiroshima Drawing Lab, Hiroshima （Hiroshima Art Galleries Week 2023）
Hiroshima Contemporary Art Salon 2023 with HAGW, Mitsukoshi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima
Fusetsu Nakamura and Portraits Exhibition, Takanawa Gallery, Tokyo
Secret Door, Hiroshima Drawing Lab, Hiroshima
Lenz, SASAI FINE ARTS, Tokyo
2022
Perpetual Shadow, Gallery Suchi, Tokyo (Also held in 2021,2019,2018,2017)
ART OLYMPIA 2022 (Selected works), Kiun-Kaku, Shizuoka
Pencil drawing Exhibition, Gallery Art Morimoto, Tokyo
Oyster Collection, Hiroshima Drawing Lab, Hiroshima
2021
Handsome Men They Are, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama; Iwami Art Museum, Shimane (Touring exhibition)
Pencil drawing Exhibition, Mitsukoshi-Nihonbashi, Tokyo
one's signal, KEN NAKAHASHI, Tokyo
A BIGGER SPLASH, Hiroshima Drawing Lab, Hiroshima
Urge, Hiroshima Drawing Lab, Hiroshima
2020
SILVER LINING, Hiroshima Drawing Lab, Hiroshima
Premonition of beauty 2020, Takashimaya-Nihonbashi / Yokohama / Kyoto (Touring exhibition)
Breakzenya / Tomio Koyama Selection, HILLSIDE TERRACE, Tokyo
one's behavior, KEN NAKAHASHI, Tokyo
2019
Soft Mirrors, KEN NAKAHASHI, Tokyo
Horns of Rhinoceros, Gallery Art Morimoto, Tokyo
The portrait within 1km, Atmosphere, Tokyo
2018
FAUSS, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo
In Between the Classic and the Contemporary, Hiroshima City University Art Museum, Hiroshima
2017
My Cat, Sato Museum, Tokyo
Star Tale, KEN NAKAHASHI, Tokyo
The Cat is the Greatest masterpiece, Gallery Art Morimoto, Tokyo
2016
IMAGO MUNDI”Benetton collection’s exhibition, PRATT INSTITUTE THE RUBELLE AND NORMAN SCHFLER GALLERY, NY (Fondazione Querini Stampalia / Venice / 2013)
LOIVE, matchbaco, Tokyo
Ichiro Sato and his comrades exhibition, NAGAI Art Gallery, Mitsukoshi-Nihonbashi, Tokyo
2015
Place We Seek, Former Hiroshima Branch of the Bank of Japan, Hiroshima
THE LITE - PORTRAITS OF THE HIBAKUSHA , JMS Aster Plaza, Hiroshima
2014
9th Kanji Maeda Grand-Prix Exhibition, Takashimaya-Nihonbashi, Tokyo / Kurayoshi Museum, Tottori (Touring exhibition)
Seeing / Drawing, Tokyo University of the Arts University Art Museum, Tokyo
2013
IMAGO MUNDI, Benetton collection’s exhibition Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice
THE LITE - PORTRAITS OF THE HIBAKUSHA , International Conference Center Hiroshima, Hiroshima
Next Art exhibition, The Asahi Shimbun Company and Matsuya Ginza, Tokyo
⚫︎Art Fair
2019 Art Taipei, Booth: YIRI ARTS, Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei
2018 Art Fair Asia, Booth: Gallery Suchi, Hotel Okura Fukuoka, Fukuoka
2016 Art Taipei, Booth: Wada Fine Arts + KEN NAKAHASHI, Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei
2014 Kyoto Art Fair, Booth: Gallery Art Morimoto, Kyoto Exhibition Hall, Kyoto
⚫︎Public Collections
Hiroshima City University Museum
Luciano Benetton Imago Mundi Collection
⚫︎Awards
2026 Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026 “Selected works”, National Portrait Gallery, London
2025 Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025 “Selected works”, National Portrait Gallery, London
2024 Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2024 “Selected works”, National Portrait Gallery, London
2024 KAIKA AWARD TOKYO 2024 “Selected works”, KAIKA TOKYO by THE SHARE HOTELS, Tokyo
2022 ART OLYMPIA “Selected works", Kiun-Kaku, Shizuoka
2017 FINE ART / UNIVERSITY SELECTION 2016-2017 “Excellence award”, Tsukuba Museum of Art, Ibaraki
2013 13th Hiroshima City University Graduation works “Noda award”, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art.
⚫︎Grunt
2024/2025 Nomura Foundation "Individual Activity Grunt Overseas"
⚫︎Book
RENDEZVOUS, published by matchbaco, 2015
⚫︎Exhibition Catalogue
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer PORTRAIT AWARD 2025, published by Great Britain National Portrait Gallery Publications, P48
Herbert Smith Freehills PORTRAIT AWARD 2024, published by Great Britain National Portrait Gallery Publications, P40
IMAGO MUNDI - Luciano Benetton Collection, published by FABRICA, P107.108
⚫︎Magazine Feature
THE WINDOW OF ART, October 2026 No.513, P87
THE WINDOW OF ART, October 2024 No.493, P75
Gekkan Bijutsu, April 2023 No.571, P42
THE WINDOW OF ART, April 2023 No.475, P157
ART Collectors, June 2021 No.147
ART Collectors, July 2019 No.124
ART Collectors, June 2018 No.111, P23
ART Collectors, December 2018 No.117, P53
ART Collectors, December 2017 No.105, P41
ART Collectors, June 2017 No.99
ART Collectors, April 2017 No.97, P21.30
ART Collectors, March 2017 No.96
ART Collectors, January, 2017 No.94
ART Collectors, November 2016 No.92
GEIJUTSU SHINCHO, October 2016
Gekkan Bijutsu, May 2016, No.488, P48
ART Collectors, February 2016 No.83, P28.29
ART Collectors, August 2015 No.77, P32.33
ART Collectors, December 2014 No.69
THE WINDOW OF ART, October 2014 No.373, P24-29
ART Collectors, December 2013 No.57
ART Collectors, July 2013 No.52
THE WINDOW OF ART, December 2012 No.373, P46-47
THE WINDOW OF ART, November 2012 No.373, P50.51
⚫︎Column
Since Nobody Sees, published by Shukan Dokushojin, 2016
⚫︎Media Coverage
NEOQUE｜ART & PHOTOGRAPHY｜Shinji Ihara, 2023, Italy
i-D Vice｜“MEYOU” Shinji IHARA Solo Exhibition, 2018, Tokyo