Exhibitions
Kyunchome
All Living Things are Breathing Now, the first solo exhibition in the British Isles by acclaimed Japanese artist duo Kyunchome, curated by Keith Whittle.
This exhibition presents a new body of work that explores and celebrates the sea and intertidal zones—dynamic spaces where land and water meet. These energetic ecotones serve as vital contact zones, where humans and diverse species coexist and respond to the rhythmic movements of the tides. Through their unique lens, Kyunchome invites viewers to consider the fluid interconnections between ecological, cultural, and spiritual lifeforms.
Click here to read more. Click here to download the exhibition brochure.
Bontarō Dokuyama
Borrowed Scenery (study), an exhibition of work by Bontarō Dokuyama. Exploring the continuous interaction between historical perspectives and the unending dialogue between the present and past in Japan. Dokuyama takes the symbolic cherry blossom, its historical and contemporary interpretation, and its adoption as a symbol of Japanese national identity.
A narrative that during Japan’s Imperialist expansion across South East Asia linked soldiers whose lives were cut short through battle to the Somei-Yoshino strain of cherry tree blossoms, with its petals that fall just a few days after reaching full bloom, in the minds of mourners.
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Mari Katayama
Broken Heart, the first UK solo exhibition by Japanese artist Mari Katayama at White Rainbow in Fitzrovia, London. Known for her powerful blend of photography and sculpture, Katayama presents a deeply personal and visually striking body of work in which her own body features centrally.
Often set against vast natural landscapes or within intimate, constructed environments, her images are meticulously composed—surrounded by embroidered fabrics, handcrafted objects, and prosthetic limbs—creating a narrative that explores themes of identity, vulnerability, and resilience.
Click here to read more.
Chikako Yamashiro
Shapeshifter, the first UK solo exhibition at White Rainbow, Fitzrovia, London by acclaimed performance and video artist Chikako Yamashiro.
Yamashiro, winner of the Asian Art Award 2017, dramatises the lesser-known aspects of Okinawa’s contemporary reality, while questioning dominant historical accounts of Japanese and American occupation of the islands.
Click here to read more.
Aki Sasamoto
Clothes Line, a solo exhibition of drawings and films of performances at White Rainbow, Fitzrovia, London by Aki Sasamoto. The artist’s first presentation at a UK gallery.
Based in New York, Sasamoto works in performance, sculpture, dance, and whatever other media required to get her ideas across. Sasamoto’s performance/installation works revolve around gestures on everything and nothing.
Click here to read more.
![Moré Moré [Leaky]: The Falling Water Given #4-6, Installation view at White Rainbow, London, 2017 Wood Frames, found objects, water pump system](http://keithwhittle.org/wp-content/uploads/slider/cache/f77de345378d4bbd8727a6ed36e9635a/YukoMohri.07.jpg)
![Moré Moré [Leaky], Installation view at White Rainbow, London 2017](http://keithwhittle.org/wp-content/uploads/slider/cache/bab59ac4056eb3deee19e32a594e468f/YukoMohri.06.jpg)
![Moré Moré [Leaky]: The Falling Water Given #4-6, Installation view at White Rainbow, London, 2017 Wood Frames, found objects, water pump system](http://keithwhittle.org/wp-content/uploads/slider/cache/bae9d65d007c516d2f63c20110c997f0/YukoMohri.01.jpg)
![Moré Moré [Leaky]: The Falling Water Given #5 (detail), 2017 Wood Frame, found objects, water pump system](http://keithwhittle.org/wp-content/uploads/slider/cache/b9a24c0997a6b4f529fac3afb4893af7/YukoMohri.04.jpg)
![Moré Moré [Leaky], Installation view at White Rainbow, London 2017](http://keithwhittle.org/wp-content/uploads/slider/cache/b4fbd58f87ba7f1036fc7cf5715793aa/YukoMohri.03.jpg)
![Moré Moré [Leaky], Installation view at White Rainbow, London 2017](http://keithwhittle.org/wp-content/uploads/slider/cache/b66be9c8b48126ca0707045b331bea59/YukoMohri.05.jpg)
![Moré Moré [Leaky]: The Falling Water Given #4-6, Installation view at White Rainbow, London, 2017 Wood Frames, found objects, water pump system](http://keithwhittle.org/wp-content/uploads/slider/cache/c1467de7a3ecda9045ddfef0cb201453/YukoMohri.09.jpg)
Yuko Mohri
Moré Moré [Leaky], an exhibition at White Rainbow, Fitzrovia, London by Yuko Mohri. The artist’s first presentation at a UK gallery.
The solo exhibition by Mohri, who recently represented Japan at the 60th Venice Biennale, showcased her installation titled Moré Moré [Leaky]. This work is part of her long-term research project focusing on the Tokyo metro. Mohri first presented this project at the prestigious Nissan Art Award in 2015, where she won the award. Responsive to the built environment, her kinetic installation at White Rainbow is in the form of a circuit, with found materials ‘wired’ together to contain flowing water, mimicking makeshift water repairs she noticed in the Tokyo metro.
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Meiro Koizumi
Battlelands, a solo exhibition of film, photography and sculpture at White Rainbow, Fitzrovia, London by Japanese artist and filmmaker Meiro Koizumi (b. 1976, Gunma, Japan). The artist’s first UK solo exhibition.
In his compelling and challenging body of work, Koizumi examines a range of complex issues: power dynamics on scales both familial and national; the tension between staged and authentic emotion; and the conflict between duty and desire. Koizumi’s artistic practice is shaped by and often directly addresses the political and military history of his native Japan, and its impact on culture and society in the present. Japan’s Peacetime Constitution – a reaction against the brutal militarism of Japanese imperialism – has seen pacifism become central to Japanese identity.
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![Chim↑Pom, Archival installation from '道 [Street]' (2017), installation view at White Rainbow, London, UK, 2018 © Chim↑Pom, Image: Damian Griffiths](http://keithwhittle.org/wp-content/uploads/slider/cache/7673f292ed0a1d094f0f6b6fdf86d70d/Chim-Pom.05.jpg)
![Chim↑Pom, Archival installation from '道 [Street]' (2017), installation view at White Rainbow, London, UK, 2018 © Chim↑Pom, Image: Damian Griffiths](http://keithwhittle.org/wp-content/uploads/slider/cache/2620e6b60e25f8548e3096972dd2d345/Chim-Pom.04.jpg)
![Chim↑Pom, Archival installation from '道 [Street]' (2017), installation view at White Rainbow, London, UK, 2018 © Chim↑Pom, Image: Damian Griffiths](http://keithwhittle.org/wp-content/uploads/slider/cache/4de224ea3bc12e9494b8fbb6f9f41e77/Chim-Pom.02.jpg)
![Chim↑Pom, Archival installation from '道 [Street]' (2017), installation view at White Rainbow, London, UK, 2018 © Chim↑Pom, Image: Damian Griffiths](http://keithwhittle.org/wp-content/uploads/slider/cache/561cff7844e2b304be71941b384d7d59/Chim-Pom.06.png)
Chim↑Pom
Why Open? – a solo exhibition at White Rainbow, Fitzrovia, London by the renowned artist collective Chim↑Pom.
Comprising Ryuta Ushiro, Yasutaka Hayashi, Ellie, Masataka Okada, Motomu Inaoka, and Toshinori Mizuno, Chim↑Pom’s work includes interventions through performance, video, painting, installation, curating and organising events. Sharp social critique underpins the group’s work, and the collective is unafraid to cause controversy in the service of their message. As Christopher Y. Lew, Associate Curator at the Whitney Museum, New York, has stated: ‘the group negotiates a difficult line – they do not make the direct assertions of activists but rather offer an ambiguous voice that is both complicit and critical.
Click here to read more.
Taro Izumi
My eyes are not in the centre, an expansive installation at White Rainbow, Fitzrovia, London by Taro Izumi. The artist’s first UK solo exhibition.
Comprised entirely of new work, Izumi’s exhibition constructs a complex web of interactions mediated through technology, evoking digital and new media’s dissociative effects on the senses. How does perceptible reality change when first hand experience is outsourced to a lens?
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Satoru Aoyama
Division of Labour, a solo exhibition at White Rainbow, Fitzrovia, London by Satoru Aoyama (b. 1973). The focus of the exhibition was a new series of work: ‘Map of the World (Dedicated to unknown embroiderers)’ (2012-). The works reference the Afghan craftswomen who assisted in the making of Alighiero Boetti’s ‘Mappa’ series (1971-1989).
For his new series, Aoyama has embroidered four world maps, along with a map of Europe. Reflecting the passage of time since Boetti’s works, new countries such as Ukraine and Serbia are now visible on the contemporary world map.
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Shigeo Anzaï
Index I&II, solo exhibitions at White Rainbow, Fitzrovia, London by renowned photographer Shigeo Anzaï. The exhibitions focused on Anzaï’s role as a witness to the landmark exhibitions, events and happenings of the avant-garde in Japan 1970–6, with particular focus on the 10th Tokyo Biennale, 1970. This was the first solo exhibition of Shigeo Anzaï in the UK.
Engaging with two aspects of Anzaï’s photographic practice, White Rainbow held two solo exhibitions of Anzaï’s work. Index I, which focused on Anzaï’s documentation of landmark exhibitions, and Index II, focusing on Anzaï’s portraits of the artists he came into contact with over a long career, including David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Nam June Paik and Joseph Beuys, among others.
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Acquisitions
Mari Katayama
Following her first UK solo exhibition at White Rainbow, curated by Keith Whittle, artist Mari Katayama discusses her work recently acquired by and currently on display at Tate Modern. Katayama creates powerful self-portraits, embroidered objects, and sculptural installations using her own body and found materials, exploring themes of identity, resilience, and transformation.
Click here to watch. Click here to read about her White Rainbow exhibition.
Publication Essays
Daisuke Ida
Publication Essay by Keith Whittle for the National Arts Centre Tokyo Exhibition, For Whom the Bell Tolls?
This essay accompanies the exhibition by Japanese artist Daisuke Ida, exploring themes of reality, physicality, and shifting perspectives. It reflects on our understanding of the world—historic, personal, economic, and technological—within the context of a global reality shaped by the post-coronavirus era and the rise of surveillance society.
Publication 2025
Yumiko Ono
Catalogue essay by Keith Whittle for the monograph Utopian Figures exploring Yumiko Ono’s artistic practice which revolves around the exploration of utopian ideals through architecture, materiality, and repetition. Working primarily with slip-cast porcelain, tracing paper, textiles, and drawing, she constructs minimal yet conceptually layered installations that blur the line between imagined structures and historical forms.
Drawing on her extensive research into Soviet and Japanese modernist architecture, Ono reinterprets historical aesthetics associated with progress, control, and idealism.
Click here to read more about the artist.
Satoru Aoyama
Essay by Keith Whittle for Division of Labour, a Solo Exhibition at White Rainbow, Fitzrovia, London
The exhibition focused on the series Map of the World (Dedicated to unknown embroiderers) (2012–), referencing the Afghan craftswomen who contributed to Alighiero Boetti’s Mappa series (1971–1989). Whittle’s essay explores the political, aesthetic, and collaborative dimensions of the work, reflecting on themes of authorship, labor, and transnational craft practices.
Click here to read the essay. Click here to read about his White Rainbow exhibition.
Published 2017
Residencies
Sutapa Biswas
Mata Ne (See You Soon) is a solo exhibition of video and mixed media works by British Indian artist Sutapa Biswas, held at Fujiya Gallery, Beppu, Japan—the artist’s first presentation at a Japanese gallery.
Curated by Keith Whittle during a two-month residency in Japan, the exhibition was inspired by the oral histories of women from Oita, who shared pivotal moments from their lives. Through an autobiographical and narrator-centred methodology, Mata Ne serves as a powerful means of recovering overlooked narratives. It foregrounded women’s lived experiences and challenged dominant historical accounts, calling for a critical re-examination and revision of the past.
Click here to read more
Adam Chodzko
Expulsion from the Garden of Eden is a solo exhibition of video and mixed media works by British artist Adam Chodzko, marking his first solo presentation at a Japanese gallery.
Curated by Keith Whittle during a two-month residency in Japan, the exhibition featured a suite of works that continued Chodzko’s exploration of how communities engage with their sense of identity, place, history, and their relationship to the world beyond. Blending elements of documentary and speculative fiction, the works developed a series of constructed mythologies to examine these themes—communicating a psychological surrealism that bridges the familiar and the fantastical.
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Yuko Mohri
Brairdcast Media: A History of Machine Translation is the first international residency and solo exhibition outside of Japan by acclaimed artist Yuko Mohri, winner of the 2016 Asian Art Award and representative of Japan at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Produced and curated by Keith Whittle, the exhibition explored the early history of broadcast media in the United Kingdom, focusing on the pioneering work of John Logie Baird, inventor of one of the first television systems. Central to the exhibition was Baird’s “Televisor”—a semi-mechanical analogue television system employing a patented mechanical scanning method—offering a lens through which Mohri investigated the translation and transmission of images, information, and media across time and technologies.
Click here to read the artists subsequent solo exhibition at White Rainbow.
Erika Tan
A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling is a two-person international residency and touring exhibition, first staged at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art. The project featured London-based Singaporean artist Erika Tan and was curated and produced by Keith Whittle and Alistair Robinson as part of the British Council’s major cultural festival, UK-Japan 2008.
During the summer of 2008, the participating artists undertook residencies in each other’s countries of residence—Japan and the UK—informing a body of research that culminated in newly commissioned films, videos, and photographic installations. The exhibition later toured to BankArt in Yokohama, Japan.
Erika Tan’s contribution, collectively titled Made in Japan, critically explored the expectations and assumptions surrounding Japanese culture. Her works interrogated the iconic imagery often associated with Japan and examined how perceptions of place are shaped by cultural projection, tourism, and the mechanisms—both physical and psychological—that sustain these representations.
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Sybille Neumeyer
Sybille Neumeyer is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of art, ecology, science, and social inquiry. Her research-based practice explores hidden forces shaping our environments and relationships with nature through observation, translation, and storytelling.
In 2013, Sybille Neumeyer participated in the ARCUS International Artist-in-Residence Programme in Ibaraki, Japan, selected by curators Keith Whittle (UK) and Naoko Horiuchi (Japan) in collaboration with the ARCUS Project. During the residency, she explored human-nature relationships amid the region’s agricultural traditions and the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and Fukushima disaster. Embracing subtle gestures over grand statements, her work reflects her role as a “silent observer.”
Click here to watch a short documentary.
Festivals
Sun Xun
Sun Xun’s work was featured in the exhibition There is no ‘I’ in Team, part of CHINA NOW, the largest festival of Chinese culture ever held in the UK. Curated by Keith Whittle (UK), Keri Elmsly (UK), Pauline Doutreluingne (Germany), and Jian Jiang (China), the exhibition offered a rare opportunity to experience the work of a dynamic new generation of artists from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau. These artists, working in moving image, sound, and installation, represent some of the most compelling and prolific voices in contemporary Chinese art today.
Widely regarded as one of the most distinguished artists of his generation, Sun Xun integrates traditional Chinese ink painting and printmaking techniques—such as ink drawings, charcoal, woodcuts—with contemporary media, including animation and large-scale installations. His practice draws from Chinese mythology, European art history, literature, and current affairs, weaving together layered narratives that challenge historical memory and cultural identity.
Click here to read more.
Mio Shirai
Mio Shirai’s short films are infused with an enigmatic, often absurd sensibility, marked by a quiet suspense that lingers just beneath the surface. Her works reimagine traditional stories and myths through a mature and unsettling lens, drawing on narrative familiarity while subtly unravelling it. Her work formed part of A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling, a two-person international touring exhibition that first opened at the Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art.
The exhibition paired Shirai with London-based Singaporean artist Erika Tan. In the summer of 2008, each artist undertook a residency in the other’s country—Tan in Japan and Shirai in the UK—immersing themselves in unfamiliar urban and cultural landscapes. The resulting film, video, and photographic installations were developed through this cross-cultural exchange, were commissioned and curated by Keith Whittle and Alistair Robinson as part of the British Council’s UK-Japan 2008 and Japan-UK 150 festivals.
Click here to visit the artists website.
What Do You Want To Do With It?
What Do You Want To Do With It? at The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London’s leading space for contemporary culture, brought together leading international artists and digital media pioneers, including John Maeda, Tim Etchells, Mike Figgis, Digista NHK, Tsai Ming-liang, Mark Amerika, as well as organisations such as the British Interactive Media Association and Digit. Many of these participants were in residence throughout the festival, contributing to a wide-ranging and ambitious programme of commissions, installations, exhibitions, talks, and residencies.
The festival event also featured an array of interactive experiences — from websites, games, and kiosks to video and text messaging activities — that explored the evolving relationship between technology and culture. What Do You Want To Do With It? was realised by Andrew Chetty and Keith Whittle, working with Echo Eschen and A Fish Can Sing. Funded by Arts Council England, it was sponsored by Motorola, SUN Microsystems, and Sony PlayStation.
Single-Channel Presentations
John Akomfrah
The Call of Mist is a work by Ghanaian-born British artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah, internationally renowned for his poetic and deeply layered explorations of memory, post-colonial histories, temporality, and visual aesthetics. Filmed across various locations on the Isle of Skye, the work serves as a poignant meditation on loss, memory, and the role of media in shaping collective and personal narratives.
In 2024, Akomfrah presented a new body of work titled Listening All Night to the Rain at the British Pavilion during La Biennale di Venezia, further extending his practice of engaging with historical and environmental themes through a rich visual language.
Click here to read more.
Derek Jarman
Blue is a film by Derek Jarman the English artist and filmmaker celebrated for his avant-garde cinema, as well as his work as a set designer, writer, gardener, and outspoken gay rights activist.
Originally released in 1993, the year before his death from an AIDS-related illness, Blue is a bold and deeply personal work that defies cinematic convention. The film presents a monochromatic blue screen accompanied by an immersive soundscape of music, voice, and sound design. Weaving a sensory tapestry of memory, reflection, and resistance, Blue stands as both a meditation on illness, dying, and love, and a political call to action—marking one of the most poignant and courageous artistic responses to the AIDS crisis in 20th-century art.
Click here to read more.
Elizabeth Price
Turner Prize-winning, London-based artist Elizabeth Price is known for her richly layered moving image works, created specifically for gallery settings. Her immersive video installations combine a wide range of materials—including analogue and digital photography, animation, motion graphics, archival documents, architectural plans, and film footage—woven together with scrolling text, computer-generated narration, and carefully selected musical scores.
Price’s works are intellectually and emotionally charged, drawing on diverse historical sources to explore themes such as institutional power, technology, and memory. Her distinctive approach transforms archival material into powerful, immersive experiences that blur the boundaries between historical record and speculative narrative.
Click here to read more.
Xu Huijing
Xu Huijing work was featured in the exhibition There is no ‘I’ in Team, part of CHINA NOW, the largest festival of Chinese culture ever held in the UK. Curated by Keith Whittle (UK), Keri Elmsly (UK), Pauline Doutreluingne (Germany), and Jian Jiang (China), the exhibition offered a rare opportunity to experience the work of a dynamic new generation of artists from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau.
Working across moving image, sound, and installation, these artists represent some of the most compelling voices in contemporary Chinese art today. Their practices address themes such as memory, identity, urbanisation, and technology, often through experimental and immersive forms. Challenging traditional narratives, their work reflects the complexities of modern China while pushing the boundaries of media and artistic expression.
Marina Abramović and Ulay
Video and Performance: Marina Abramović and Ulay is a single-channel programme showcasing several seminal works by the legendary performance art duo.
Marina Abramović and Ulay (Frank Uwe Laysiepen) began collaborating and living together in 1976, forging a groundbreaking artistic partnership that explored the boundaries of physical and psychological endurance, as well as gender roles. Their collaboration famously culminated in The Lovers: Great Wall Walk (1988), a symbolic and emotional parting performance along the Great Wall of China. Throughout their careers, Abramović and Ulay repeatedly made themselves the subject of their performances, challenging conventions and pushing the limits of the body and mind.
Click here to read more.
Site-Specfic
Hoo Fan Chon
Into the World of Palpable Objects and Fruitful Delight is a solo exhibition curated by Keith Whittle, featuring the work of Malaysian artist Fan Chon Hoo at Eleven Spitalfields—one of the historic Georgian townhouses built in the late 17th and 18th centuries to accommodate French Protestant (Huguenot) refugees. This marked Fan Chon Hoo’s first solo exhibition in the UK.
Shortlisted for Saatchi Gallery and Channel 4’s New Sensations 2010, Fan Chon Hoo employs a uniquely compelling visual language. Assuming the role of a modern-day amateur antiquarian and anthropologist, informed by the explorations of 18th and 19th-century travellers and naturalists, Hoo investigates how cultural artefacts serve as residues and deposits of cultural translation processes.
Click here to read more.
Michael Lin
Untitled is one of two site-specific works created in Beppu, Japan, by Michael Lin, an artist based in Taipei and Brussels.
Since the late 1990s, Lin has been recognized for his expansive use of floral motifs deeply rooted in Taiwanese culture. These patterns—reminiscent of the traditional embroideries often found on Taiwanese pillows—reflect the shifting domestic and political landscapes Lin witnessed upon his return to Taiwan after many years abroad. While his repetitive and seemingly simple floral landscapes draw from Taiwanese visual traditions, they have become the most politically and culturally significant elements of his practice, embodying complex narratives of identity, history, and belonging.
Sarkis
In Colors in Water, Sarkis introduces a modest yet profoundly symbolic installation: a simple circular wooden table on which bowls are carefully arranged. These vessels become sites of quiet transformation, where Sarkis’ “Angels” — assistants or spiritual intermediaries — pour colors into water, generating a delicate, ever-shifting spectrum of translucent hues. These ephemeral colour fields, born during a series of workshops, embody the “infinite fractions of light” that emerge from collaborative acts of creation.
The resulting works are not confined to the studio; they are transferred to a secondary site — a Shrine — where they continue to resonate, joining disparate locations and communities in a shared ritual of color, memory, and presence.
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Commissions
Sonia Boyce
Phil Lynott Rocks is a work by Sonia Boyce, a British Afro-Caribbean artist and educator based in London. She is currently Professor of Black Art and Design at the University of the Arts London.
Boyce’s practice critically engages with art as a social practice, exploring the complex debates and contexts that arise from this field. Since 1990, she has placed significant emphasis on collaboration, frequently involving improvisation and spontaneous performative actions by her collaborators, creating dynamic and evolving works that challenge conventional artistic authorship.
Click here to read more.
Isaac Julien
One of today’s most prominent and influential figures in media art and film, Isaac Julien is an award-winning British installation artist and filmmaker, as well as Distinguished Professor of the Arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His multi-channel installations, documentaries, and photographs explore Black and queer histories and identities with profound depth and nuance.
Julien first gained international acclaim for his iconic film Looking for Langston (1989), a poetic montage reimagining the life and legacy of poet, novelist, and playwright Langston Hughes during the Harlem Renaissance. His work is characterized by rigorous historical inquiry and a seamless blurring of boundaries between film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting, and sculpture.
His two-channel installation Vagabondia (2000), commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella—where Keith Whittle was employed from 1994 to 2005—critically examines how structures of power and domination shape and distort historical narratives within museum contexts.
Click here to read more.
Mark Leckey
Parade, by Turner Prize-winning British artist Mark Leckey, is a video and sound installation characterized by its unnerving auditory landscape—a procession of consuming pleasures rendered in psychedelic decadence.
Commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella in association with the Brighton Photo Biennial, Parade was presented alongside the major group exhibition Make Life Beautiful! The Dandy in Photography at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. The installation, shown at Fabrica, continues Leckey’s sustained investigation into style subcultures and contemporary cultural icons, weaving together themes of consumption, identity, and spectacle.
Click here to read more.
Talks
Keith Whittle
The first in a series of five talks, Keith Whittle delivered a keynote on the concept of Bienalisation and its impact on the contemporary art world. His lecture explored key developments such as the rise of global curatorial discourse, the blurring of boundaries between art and non-art categories, and the growing prominence of contemporary art from non-Western regions including Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Fram Kitagawa
Fram Kitagawa, director of the Echigo-Tsumari Triennale, is a visionary art producer and curator who presented on the groundbreaking festival that has played a central role in Japan’s unique social art movement over the past two decades. The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, one of the world’s largest art festivals, takes place every three years across the expansive rural Satoyama region in Niigata Prefecture.
Leah Gordon
In 2023, the Atis Rezistans | Ghetto Biennale exhibition at Documenta Fifteen was awarded Exhibition of the Year by AICA Germany. Leah Gordon—artist, curator, writer, and co-founder of the Ghetto Biennale in Haiti—presented on the biennale’s origins and mission. Originally conceived to highlight issues of social, racial, class, and geographical immobility, the Ghetto Biennale continues to challenge conventional art world narratives by foregrounding voices and practices often marginalized on the global stage.
Shubigi Rao
Shubigi Rao spoke about her diverse artistic practice and her role as curator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, held from December 2022 to April 2023. Her multidisciplinary work spans archaeology, neuroscience, libraries, archives, histories, literature, violence, ecology, and natural history, weaving these fields into thought-provoking explorations of contemporary concerns.
Lewis Biggs
Former Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Liverpool Biennial, Lewis Biggs, discussed the emergence of the Liverpool Biennial as a latecomer among the international biennials that began proliferating in the late 1980s. He outlined the challenges faced by earlier biennials and described how Liverpool developed a unique model—one that has become vital not only for the city and its citizens but also for its artistic community and the wider international art scene.
Mari Katayama
White Rainbow and the Japan Foundation presented an artist talk by Mari Katayama to coincide with her solo exhibition Broken Heart, curated by Keith Whittle at White Rainbow Gallery, London. Katayama discussed her artistic process, reflecting on how her physical challenges have shaped her work and influenced her perception of body image. The talk was followed by a conversation with Simon Baker, director of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris.
Click here to watch.
Keith Whittle
One Place After Another: What Can Periodical International Contemporary Art Projects Share?
In this talk, Keith Whittle examined the rise of large-scale, recurring international exhibitions of contemporary art around the world. Following his presentation, a panel discussion further explored the challenges and opportunities these projects present. The panel featured two internationally recognised curators—Yuko Hasegawa, known for her major exhibitions in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, and Lewis Biggs, former director of the Liverpool Biennial—alongside Koki Tanaka, the representative artist for the Japan Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, and Mark Rappolt, Editor of Art Review.
Organised by and held at the The Japan Foundation, London
Kenji Kajiya & Keith Whittle
Intervening in Nature: Talk and Conversation between Kenji Kajiya and Keith Whittle
This talk explored the expansion of non-museum-based exhibitions in Japan during the first decade of the 21st century. Ranging from artist-run initiatives to large-scale rural festivals, these are often referred to as “art projects” to emphasize the processual nature of creating artworks, the temporariness of installations, and the unique venues. Amid the global rise of biennales and triennials, major international art festivals like the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale in Niigata and the Setouchi Triennale across Naoshima and neighboring islands are best understood within the context of these Japanese art projects.
The talk provided an insightful historical overview of the development of such projects and considered how they have engaged with natural landscapes and local communities throughout Japan.
Organised by and held at the The Japan Foundation, London
Ichiro Endo, Keith Whittle & Kaori Homma
Post 3.11: What Can Art Do? – Talk by Ichiro Endo, Keith Whittle and Kaori Homma
Post 3.11 is a talk series highlighting artists who have supported victims of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan’s Tohoku region. By presenting their work, the series explores how art can contribute in times of crisis — from raising awareness to rebuilding confidence — and questions whether art must serve a practical social function.
The first session featured Ichiro Endo, a painter, performer, and self-described “future artist,” known for his energetic, visionary projects exhibited internationally. He was joined by Kaori Homma, UK-based Japanese artist, and Keith Whittle, curator and Japan Foundation Fellow, for a discussion on the role of the artist in society and how creative practices can help forge new connections in the aftermath of disaster.
Organised by and held at the The Japan Foundation, Londonp
Daisuke Ohba & Keith Whittle
The Light Field, talk and in conversation Daisuke Ohba and Keith Whittle
This talk coincided with the first solo exhibition in London, Japanese artist Daisuke Ohba showcased his unique ‘light field’ paintings, achieved through the use of iridescent pearl paint to produce continual transformations, image shifts, and colour transitions, as the light varies or as the viewer moves. By developing this relationship with the viewer, Ohba has explored new possibilities in pictorial space.
Organised by and held at The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, London
Keith Whittle
Mirrored Lenses: A Brief History of Japanese Video and Media Art
Programmed to coincide with The Conquest of Imperfection—the first major UK exhibition of Japanese media artist Masaki Fujihata’s acclaimed interactive work at Cornerhouse, Manchester—this talk by Keith Whittle explored the evolution of Japanese moving image and media art.
Spanning from the 1960s to the present, Whittle highlighted key practitioners such as Shigeko Kubota and artists whose work across performance, sculpture, and moving image blurs the boundaries between the physical world and its digital representation through new media and video installation.
The talk served as an insightful accompaniment to Fujihata’s UK solo debut, offering context for his pioneering contributions to media art.
Organised by and held at Cornerhouse, Manchester