Date｜October 15 – November 10, 2019
Venue｜MEM map
Open hours｜12:00-20:00
Closed on Mondays [Unless it is a public holiday or a compensating holiday, in which case will be closed on Tuesday.]
Tel｜+81-(0)3-6459-3205

Artist Talk & Opening Reception
Date&Hour｜October 19, 18:00 –
Venue｜MEM
Guest｜Yasuyuki Nakai (Deputy Director and Chief Curator of The National Museum of Art, Osaka)
Admission free, Japanese version only.
Opening reception will be held after the talk.

When Tanihara paints, instead of using a regular canvas, she stretches a black velvet cloth across the panel. As a base she uses oil paints but occasionally uses sequin and glitter to develop her unique world. The unpainted sections of the painting have a jet-black darkness. The spirit worlds, nightmares, apparitions, demons, vengeful spirits, possessed souls and violence that are thoroughly depicted in Tanihara’s work parallelly exist as an alternate reality on the other side of our world. Matsurawanu-mono refer to “those disobedient tribes who continued to fiercely resist the Yamato Imperial Court during its establishment.” Tanihara depicts the stories of Matsurawanu-mono. They walk the dark paths of society, only able to exist in dark places; her job as a painter is to depict their narrative worlds. With a deep sense of empathy towards these beings, Tanihara continues to produce her artwork.
Tanihara is currently working towards for her doctorate degree at the Kyoto City University of Arts. In 2015, she received the 7th Koji Kinutani Award. In 2016, she received the VOCA Shoreisho (second place prize). In 2017, she received the Itsushima Memorial Cultural Rookie of the Year Award. This is Tanihara’s first one-person show in Tokyo.