Kazuharu Hanada Solo Exhibition

「　SILENCE　」

Kazuharu Hanada’s paintings are permeated by a quietude that speaks without words.

They evoke the sun hovering at the boundary between day and night, fragments of ice floating on a warm sea, or footprints about to be covered by snow. Within this silence, all language has already been spoken. Image and emptiness, coldness and warmth resonate within the pictorial space, allowing vast landscapes to emerge from restrained compositions. Here, northern landscapes intersect with inner, psychological vistas, giving rise to an unwavering equilibrium that transcends the opposition between being and nothingness.

Goyo Gallery positions Kazuharu Hanada as a significant figure in Hokkaido abstraction and in the broader history of postwar Japanese abstract painting. Grounded in the natural environment and spiritual sensibility of Hokkaido, Hanada developed a pictorial world rich in poetic nuance and spatial aesthetics. The beauty of negative space and the serene atmosphere present in his works deeply embody a distinctly Japanese sensibility, while simultaneously offering a unique resonance within international abstract art. In recent years, abstract expressions incorporating Eastern philosophy and views of nature have been reevaluated globally. We believe that Hanada’s work, too, should be rediscovered from new perspectives within this context.

This exhibition presents a selection of important late works created after Hanada reached artistic maturity. The worldview crystallized through decades of exploration resonates with Eastern thought, transcending dualities such as form and void, movement and stillness, interior and exterior, and revealing a more integrated and balanced state. These works move beyond the framework of postwar Japanese abstraction, offering fresh stimuli to contemporary international art discourse and posing universal questions that unfold within profound silence.

▼Artist

Kazuharu Hanada（1946 – 2017）

1946
Born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, as the youngest of seven siblings (second son) to father Goro Hanada and mother Yoshi.

1964
Graduated from Sapporo Higashi High School, Hokkaido.

1965
Enrolled in the Oil Painting Department, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts.
Studied under Yohei Koiso.

1969
Graduated from the Oil Painting Department, Tokyo University of the Arts.
Entered the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, majoring in Oil Painting.

1970
Held his first solo exhibition at Gallery Tokiwa, Tokyo, presenting works including Work D.
Received the Ohashi Prize from Tokyo University of the Arts.

1971
Completed the Master’s Program at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts.
Traveled in Europe for three months, journeying from Northern Europe southward to Naples, Italy.

1974
Returned to Sapporo, Hokkaido.

1975
Married Megumi Yamada.
Served as a part-time lecturer at Hokkaido Women’s Junior College (until March 1983).
Held a solo exhibition at Sapporo Clock Tower Gallery, exhibiting 25 oil paintings and 7 prints, including Apron.
Exhibited Clip 1 in the Ohashi Prize Commemorative Exhibition at Tokyo Central Art Museum.

1976
Joined Hokkaido College of Art and Design.
Promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1987; retired in 1996.

1977
Birth of his first daughter, Chiharu.
Held a solo exhibition at Sapporo Clock Tower Gallery, exhibiting oil paintings including Adze and Plane, along with prints and sculptures.

1978
Stayed in the United States for one month, expanding his artistic research.
Exhibited Drawing Board in the ’78 Hokkaido Contemporary Art Exhibition at Sapporo Clock Tower Gallery.
Installed the wall relief Seawall in the Mayor’s Office of Yubetsu Town Hall (now Yubetsu Town General Branch).

1979
Served as a part-time lecturer at Fuji Women’s Junior College (until 1992).

1981
Birth of his second daughter, Akiko.
Exhibited City II and Evening Mist in the 4th Hokkaido Contemporary Art Exhibition at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art.

1982
Exhibited Toward the Forest in the 9th Exhibition of the Ecole de Hokkaido Abstract Artists Association at Sapporo Clock Tower Gallery; became a member of the association.

1983
Exhibited Apron II in Hokkaido Art 1960–1980 at the Alberta Provincial Museum, Canada.

1985
Held a solo exhibition at Sapporo Clock Tower Gallery, presenting ten works including Two Earrings.

1989
Expanded his studio.
Exhibited Hill and Sea in the Sapporo–America Contemporary Art Exchange Exhibition at the Sapporo American Cultural Center.

1990
Held a solo exhibition at Gallery TAPIO, Sapporo, exhibiting nine works including Wave-1, Wave-2, Wave-3, Wave-4, and Ski II.

1991
Participated in the 4th Sapporo Clock Tower Cultural Center Art Award Exhibition.
Served as a part-time lecturer at Sapporo Otani Junior College (until 2008).

1992
Held a solo exhibition at Gallery Ai, Sapporo, presenting oil paintings and watercolors including In the Subway and Chico.
Installed Flowers and Stars on the exterior wall of the gallery building of A.I.M. Co., Ltd. (Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido).

1992
Held a solo exhibition at Sapporo Clock Tower Gallery, exhibiting works including Sand and Waves (Song of the Seashore), Wide Plain, and Spring.

1993
Exhibited Apron in the S’s Collection Exhibition at Temporary Space, Sapporo.

1994
Installed the ceramic panel mural Flowers and Birds at the Sansan Road pedestrian passage connecting Kushiro Station.
Exhibited Earth and Spring Waves in the 5th Ten Artists’ Space Exhibition at Daimaru Fujii Central Sky Hall, Sapporo.
Exhibited Sky and Adze and Moonlit Night in Northern Currents: Avant-Garde Art of Hokkaido at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art.

1995
Exhibited Carp Streamers in the 6th Ten Artists’ Space Exhibition at Daimaru Fujii Central Sky Hall, Sapporo.

1997
Held a solo exhibition at Salon Galerie de l’Art, Sapporo, exhibiting 24 works including Sky, Roadside, and Winter Road.

1998
Exhibited Snow and Water in the ’98 Sapporo Art Exhibition at Sapporo Citizens Gallery.

1999
Exhibited PIRIKA in the ’99 Sapporo Art Exhibition at Sapporo Citizens Gallery.
Installed oil paintings Spring Flowers and Apples in the entrance hall of Greenpia Special Nursing Home for the Elderly, Sapporo.

2000
Invited to exhibit Mother’s Train in the 35th Hokkaido Shutaiga Art Association Exhibition at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art.

2005
Held a solo exhibition at Temporary Space, Sapporo, exhibiting oil paintings, prints, and a drawing, including Amy’s Fantasy, By the Seaside, Mother’s Train, and Dance.

2006
Participated in the group exhibition Art of Hokkaido—100 Works at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, exhibiting Sky and Adze.

2007
Participated in Otani Gakuen 100th Anniversary Exhibition: 100 Selected Works from Otani at Sapporo Citizens Gallery, exhibiting Season of Cherry Blossoms and At the Mouth of the Ishikari River.

2011
Participated in A★MUSE★LAND★TOMORROW 2012 at the Hokkaido Migishi Kotaro Museum of Art, exhibiting Moonlit Night.

2012
Held the solo exhibition Northern Creators #04: Fantasy – Kazuharu Hanada at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, presenting 49 oil paintings and 4 prints.

2014
Awarded the Medal with Blue Ribbon by the Government of Japan.

2017
Passed away.

2020
Posthumous retrospective exhibition The World of Kazuharu Hanada: Color and Form, Humor and Poetry held at Karuizawa New Art Museum (through 2021).

▼Exhibition Information

【Date】2025/10/11 Sat. – 11/1 Sat.
【Open】12:00 – 19:00
【Close】Monday
【Location】TERRADA ART COMPLEX II 3F, 1-32-8 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0002