Project Native Informant

Harumi Yamaguchi

A leading name in the world of Japanese advertising, she pioneered the highly dramatic but elusively flat airbrush aesthetic closely associated with commercial illustration. Harumi Yamaguchi’s practice places her in the vanguard of new painterly practices and as a celebrated documenter of an emerging feminist aesthetic from the 1970s onwards.

Born in Matsue in the Shimane prefecture, Yamaguchi graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts in oil painting. She began her career as a freelance illustrator, spearheading the advertising for the renowned retail establishment PARCO. From its outset, PARCO was established to combine a commercial retail establishment with a cultural facility, combining platforms such as museum, theatre, and publishing in addition to retail. Yamaguchi’s role as engineer of the project’s mise-en-scène places her in the center of art and design in Japan.

As one of the original gyaru — commonly known also as “Shibuya Girls” rising from out ūman ribu or the feminist movements of the 1970s and generally applied to professionally-empowered but trend-conscious young women— Yamaguchi’s position at PARCO gave her license to portray an emerging cosmopolitan woman, liberated from the vestiges of traditional femininity and empowered through consumerism to define her own individuality. “Harumi’s gals” are often active and in motion — be it throwing a ball or swimming in a crystal blue pool — and returning the gaze of the viewer.

As Chizuko Ueno noted in her essay published in connection to “Women of the 70s PARCO Poster Exhibition 1969-1986”, an exhibition that took place at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, “while appearing to adhere to the scenario of male-tailored eroticism, Yamaguchi deconstructs male desire through her exaggerative depictions. As a consequence, the female body is idealised to a realm unreachable by male hands”.

Yamaguchi’s works are in the collections of: CCGA Graphic Art Center; Fukushima Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa, Japan; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

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Solo Exhibitions
2020HARUMI GALS, 3110NZ by LDH Kitchen, Tokyo
Harumi's Winter, 2G NANZUKA, Tokyo
2018Harumi's Summer, Ginza Graphic, Tokyo
2017Harumi Yamaguchi, CONDO NY, New York
Harumi Yamaguchi: 1974 - 1985, Project Native Informant, London
2016Hyper! HARUMI GALS!, PARCO Museum, Tokyo
WOMEN, Gallery Retara, Sapporo
HARUMI GALS, POST, Tokyo
2015HARUMI GALS, AISHONANZUKA, Hong Kong
HARUMI GALS, NANZUKA, Tokyo
2013Harumi Yamaguchi - Femmes Japonaises, Gallery House MAYA, Tokyo
2011Yamaguchi Harumi meets Seibu Shibuya, Seibu Shibuya, Tokyo
2009Ecchi, GALERIE Malle, Tokyo
2002Fall in Love with Thoroughbreds, Minami-Aoyama Gallery, Tokyo
2001Time Tunnel Series VOL.13 – Heroine at the Time, reation Gallery G8, Tokyo / Guardian Garden, Tokyo
2020A Message to the 21 Century – Dignify Woman, Shimane Art Museum, Shimane
2000A Message to the 21 Century – Dignify Woman, PARCO Gallery, Tokyo
Group Exhibitions
2023EVERYTHING AT ONCE: POSTMODERNITY 1967-1992, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn
PNI @ 10, Project Native Informant, London
2021VAMOS NIPPON!, The Naughton Gallery, Belfast
POP-ING NANZUKA at AKI Gallery, Aki Gallery, Taipei
Fashion in Japan 1945-2020, The National Art Center, Tokyo
Fashion in Japan 1945-2020, Iwami Art Museum, Shimane
2020JP Pop Underground, Shinsaibashi PARCO, Osaka
Global Pop Underground, PARCO Museum, Tokyo
Wanderlust, PARCO Museum, Tokyo
2019Tokyo Pop Underground, Jeffrey Deitch, New York
They Gaze, James Fuentes, New York
2018Bubblewrap, Contemporary Art Museum, KumamotoThe House of Fame, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham
2016Desire, Moore Building, Miami
2014Here is ZINE Tokyo BANGKOK 8, TOKYO CULTUART by BEAMS, Tokyo
2013SHIBUPAR, PARCO Museum, Tokyo
2011Woman on the Town, Advertising Museum Tokyo, Tokyo
2004The Golden Age of Illustration, CCGA Graphic Art Center, Fukushima
2001Parco Poster Collection 1969-1986, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography Library, Tokyo
1992Tadahito Nadamoto, Akira Uno, Makoto Wada, Harumi Yamaguchi, ggg Gallery, Tokyo / ddd Gallery, Osaka
Publications
2016Harumi Gals, Hioshina, Tokyo
2001Woman, Rokuyõ-sha, Tokyo
1980Dream of Movies, Woman of Dream, Hanashi-no-Tokushu-sha, Tokyo
1978Harumi Gals, PARCO, Tokyo
Public Collections
CCGA Graphic Art Center, Fukushima
Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Installation View

Harumi Yamaguchi
Harumi Yamaguchi, Selected Works: 1974 - 1985, 2017
Project Native Informant, London

Harumi Yamaguchi

Plastic Hose

1976
Acrylic on board, framed
63 x 65.7 x 3 cm
24 3/4 x 25 7/8 x 1 1/8 in

Harumi Yamaguchi

Dripping

1974
Acrylic on board, framed
51.4 x 71.2 x 3 cm
20 1/4 x 28 1/8 x 1 1/8 in

Harumi Yamaguchi

Peeking Lady

1980
Acrylic on board, framed
50 x 70 x 3 cm
19 3/4 x 27 1/2 x 1 1/8 in

Installation View

Harumi Yamaguchi
Harumi Yamaguchi, Selected Works: 1974 - 1985, 2017
Project Native Informant, London

Harumi Yamaguchi

Soap Bubbles

1979
Acrylic on board, framed
51.5 x 72.8 x 3 cm
20 1/4 x 28 5/8 x 1 1/8 in

Installation View

Harumi Yamaguchi
Harumi Yamaguchi, Selected Works: 1974 - 1985, 2017
Project Native Informant, London

Installation View

Harumi Yamaguchi
Harumi Yamaguchi, Selected Works: 1974 - 1985, 2017
Project Native Informant, London

Harumi Yamaguchi

Glass, Summer and Woman

1979
Acrylic on board, framed
74.2 x 104.2 x 3 cm
29 1/4 x 41 1/8 x 1 1/8 in

Installation View

Harumi Yamaguchi
Harumi Yamaguchi, Selected Works: 1974 - 1985, 2017
Project Native Informant, London

Installation View

Harumi Yamaguchi
Harumi Yamaguchi, Selected Works: 1974 - 1985, 2017
Project Native Informant, London

Installation View

Harumi Yamaguchi
Hyper! HARUMI GALS!, 2016
PARCO Museum, Tokyo

Harumi Yamaguchi

Danielle Darrieux

1980
Acrylic on board, framed
51.5 x 36.4 x 3 cm
20 1/4 x 14 3/8 x 1 1/8 in

Installation View

Harumi Yamaguchi
Hyper HARUMI GALS!, 2016
PARCO Museum, Tokyo

Harumi Yamaguchi

Rita Hayworth

1980
Acrylic on board, framed
51.5 x 36.4 x 3 cm
20 1/4 x 14 3/8 x 1 1/8 in

Installation View

Harumi Yamaguchi
Hyper! HARUMI GALS!, 2016
PARCO Museum, Tokyo

Installation View

Harumi Yamaguchi
HARUMI GALS, 2015
NANZUKA, Tokyo

Installation View

Harumi Yamaguchi
HARUMI GALS, 2015
NANZUKA, Tokyo

Harumi Yamaguchi

Lying on Ice

1979
Acrylic on board, framed
59.8 x 51.5 x 3 cm
23 1/2 x 20 1/4 x 1 1/8 in

Installation View

Harumi Yamaguchi
HARUMI GALS, 2015
AISHONANZUKA, Hong Kong

Harumi Yamaguchi

Megaphone

1975
Acrylic on board, framed
45 x 61.7 x 3 cm
17 3/4 x 24 1/4 x 1 1/8 in

Installation View

Harumi Yamaguchi
HARUMI GALS, 2015
AISHONANZUKA, Hong Kong

Solo Exhibitions

Harumi Yamaguchi

Spazio Maiocchi, Milan

WAVE: Currents in Japanese Graphic Arts

Japan House, London

Group Shows

Harumi Yamaguchi

The House of Fame

Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham

Harumi Yamaguchi

Global Pop Underground

Parco Museum, Tokyo

DIS, Flo Brooks, Hal Fischer, Harumi Yamaguchi, ...

LISTE 2018

LISTE, Basel

DIS, Harumi Yamaguchi, Juliana Huxtable, Ned Vena

Art021 2017

Art021, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai

Harumi Yamaguchi

EVERYTHING AT ONCE: POSTMODERNITY 1967–1992

Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn

Units 1 and 3
48 Three Colts Lane
London E2 6GQ
United Kingdom

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