The Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), Miami, is currently presenting Keiichi Tanaami: Memory Collage, the first solo museum exhibition of the acclaimed Japanese artist in the United States. Tanaami (July 21, 1936 – August 9, 2024) is well known in Japan for a six-decade career bridging American and Japanese post-war pop art through his disorienting psychedelic collage style. The show is organised by ICA Miami and is on view from November 21, 2024 – March 30, 2025. It is curated by Alex Gartenfeld, the institute’s Irma and Norman Braman Artistic Director, along with Gean Moreno, director of Art + Research Center, ICA Miami. The curators join STIR for an interview that explores Tanaami’s articulation of pop culture and the link between his work and traditional Japanese art forms.

Tanaami often featured popular Japanese and American fictional and real characters as a means of highlighting the influence of mass media on our collective psyches. – Alex Gartenfeld, Irma and Norman Braman Artistic Director, ICA Miami

Tanaami’s work is heavily informed by his experiences growing up in Japan during and after the Second World War, as he was haunted by childhood memories of time spent in air raid shelters during American bombing runs. Symbols of violence, ranging from real-world firearms and American bomber jets to fantastical depictions of alien invasions, are spread throughout his oeuvre. The artist mashed these up with sexual imagery, particularly of the sort seen in older editions of American adult magazines such as Playboy (he would also spend time as the first art director of Japan’s Monthly Playboy, which ran from 1975 – 2009). Tanaami’s art also prominently features popular American and Japanese characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Ultraman.

The artist combined these recurring elements in vivid compositions that carry an energy so frenetic they seem to explode outward at the viewer. Gartenfeld tells STIR, “Tanaami often featured popular Japanese and American fictional and real characters…as a means of highlighting the influence of mass media on our collective psyches. The juxtaposition of these kinds of figures with themes like war and sexuality reflects his ability to bring together multiple realities; both his own experience and the collective experience of contemporary culture.”

As the curator explains, the artist drew from his personal experiences, as well as from the cultural revolution unfolding around him in the 60s and 70s. Tanaami’s work sits comfortably alongside the art being produced during the era of psychedelic rock. He also created album art for the Japanese releases of the rock albums Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (1967) and After Bathing At Baxter’s (1968), by American bands The Monkees and Jefferson Airplane, respectively.

In how he composed his scenes, Tanaami’s work also appears to draw from traditional Japanese art movements such as Ukiyo-e (1601 – 1699) and Shunga (popular from 1600 – 1868), which were often executed in a woodblock print format. The former was characterised by a celebration of feminine beauty and nature, as well as the portrayal of current events and folktales, both rife with violence. The latter is an erotic offshoot of Ukiyo-e that explores sexuality, sometimes with an element of tongue-in-cheek ness. Moreno confirms this, explaining that his collages “evoke violent and erotic imagery and storytelling, much like the traditional woodblock prints”.

The ongoing solo exhibition in Miami, Florida, sheds light on the work of a prominent pop artist who may not be widely known within the United States but interacted extensively with American culture throughout his illustrious career. Furthermore, it presents us with a fascinating artistic response to the traumas of war. Tanaami never truly shook the spectre of state violence that haunted him, instead choosing to articulate it as an essential element of contemporary life alongside sexual excess and pop culture.

‘Keiichi Tanaami: Memory Collage’ is on view at ICA Miami from November 21, 2024 – March 30, 2025.