Shinjiro Tanaka is a Tokyo based artist born in Los Angeles and raised in Tokyo. Working across murals, painting, installation, live painting, and video expression, his practice moves fluidly between multiple forms of media.
After studying economics at Keio University, he worked at an advertising agency while navigating the structures of society and the city. The 2011 earthquake in Japan became a turning point that led him to reconsider the relationship between life and artistic expression.
He later moved to New York, where he studied graphic design at Parsons School of Design while immersing himself in environments shaped by street dance, music, fashion, stage production, and diverse cultural perspectives. These experiences deepened his awareness of “Hazama” — a sense of existing between different worlds, values, and states of being.
At the core of his practice is an interest in experiences that resist fixed definitions: between Japan and abroad, body and city, order and impulse, isolation and connection. The bodily awareness and improvisational sensibility cultivated through dance continue to strongly influence his work, appearing through lines, dots, repetition, layered compositions, and spontaneous mark making.
For Tanaka, painting is less about reproducing a pre planned image and more about responding to movement, emotion, and the surrounding space in real time. Whether through murals, paintings, live painting, or installation, bodily presence and improvisation remain central elements throughout his practice.
In recent years, Tanaka has expanded his activities internationally across New York and Europe in addition to Japan. In 2026, he participated in Springbeast Festival in Stockholm, one of Northern Europe’s largest graffiti and public art festivals, where he created large scale murals and engaged with an international community of artists. Through these experiences, he continues to explore the role of art within public space, street culture, and community.
His recent series “Broken, yet still golden” focuses on the traces of value and dignity that remain within brokenness, vulnerability, and division. The gold lines within the works symbolize not only repair, but also the act of continuing to exist imperfectly.
Whether working in public or commercial spaces, Tanaka approaches art not simply as visual decoration, but as a way of engaging with the time, memory, atmosphere, and human presence embedded within a place, creating new forms of connection and perception.
Shinjiro Tanaka
ARTIST
History
Solo Exhibition
2026
Broken, yet still golden / Historia Gallery (Tokyo, Japan)
2025
Lost and Found / Grassroots Yokohama (Kanagawa, Japan)
2024
CHUMS x SHINJIRO TANAKA Collaboration Exhibition / CHUMS Omotesando (Tokyo, Japan)
2023
Reverse / All Day Gallery (Tokyo, Japan)
Rebirth / Gallery Max New York (New York, USA)
2022
Dashi Joint / Dashi Brooklyn (New York, USA)
a Moment of Eternity / Medel Gallery Shu (Tokyo, Japan)
2021
Somehow Connected / eplus LIVING ROOM CAFE＆DINING (Tokyo, Japan)
Untitled / NORA HAIR SALON (Tokyo, Japan)
2020
Augmentation / Why not? (Tokyo, Japan)
Carpe Diem / eplus LIVING ROOM CAFE＆DINING (Tokyo, Japan)
Memento Mori / Pulplism (Tokyo, Japan)
2019
PEN / Why not? (Tokyo, Japan)
REINCARNATION / RIGNA TERRACE TOKYO (Tokyo, Japan)
NYC STREET ART PROJECT / Port of Call Daikanyama (Tokyo, Japan)
2018
FACE / Sora Zenon (Tokyo, Japan)
01
Group Exhibition
2026
Springbeast Festival (Stockholm, Sweden)
2025
Caption by Hyatt Kabutocho (Tokyo, Japan)
Evolute Academia of NY (New York, USA)
Welling Walls (New York, USA)
Freemans Alley (New York, USA)
2024
POD Hotel Brooklyn (New York, USA)
Han-bi-je (Osaka, Japan)
2022
POD Hotel Brooklyn (New York, USA)
Dashi Brooklyn (New York, USA)
ART PROJECT TAKASAKI (Gunma, Japan)
Tateno Elementary School (Tokyo, Japan)
Sanko Facilities Inc. (Tokyo, Japan)
Comota CO., LTD. (Kanagawa, Japan)
eplus Living Room Cafe (Tokyo, Japan)
AZDEN CORPORATION (Tokyo, Japan)
2021
Fujitsu Limited (Kanagawa, Japan)
Nishihachi Project (Tokyo, Japan)
Ocean's Camp Toramii (Chiba, Japan)
Anker Kobe (Hyogo, Japan)
eplus Living Room Cafe (Tokyo, Japan)
Sumika (Tokyo, Japan)
2020
Hachi Hachi (Tokyo, Japan)
eplus Living Room Cafe (Tokyo, Japan)
2019 Southbank (London, UK)
Brooklyn Parlor (Tokyo, Japan)
Harajuku Mural Project (Tokyo, Japan)
02
Live Performance
2025
ARTS-A-GLOW / Burien, USA
Hustle Break Tokyo 10th anniversary / CHACARA (Kanagawa, Japan)
2024
This&That Vol. 47: “Colors of the City” / BnA_WALL (Tokyo, Japan)
Chaga-Uma Festival / Shakujii Hikawa Shrine (Tokyo, Japan)
Ascott Unlimited 40th Anniversary Dinner Event / THE UPPER (Tokyo, Japan)
New Style Hustle Party / REP music cafe (New York, USA)
Kichi-On / Dig Bowl Kichijoji (Tokyo, Japan)
Arifuku Onsen Music Festival / Arifuku Onsen (Shimane, Japan)
Night Lyf / Lyf Ginza (Tokyo, Japan)
Evergreen / 3pm Cafe (Tokyo, Japan)
2023 Joint Jam Session / Secret Venue (Tokyo, Japan)
Evergreen / 3pm Cafe (Tokyo, Japan)
WHAT CAFE SPECIAL MARKET 2023 AUTUMN / WHAT CAFE (Tokyo, Japan)
Late Night Groove -Tokyo Edition- (Tokyo, Japan)
Sunday Afternoon Party / Sunday (Tokyo, Japan)
CHUMS CAMP 2023 / Rising Field Karuizawa (Nagano, Japan)
For the future 2023 / Nakaikebukuro Park (Tokyo, Japan)
Future is Now / Bushwick (New York, USA)
CUPA Dance Showcase / Symphony Space (New York, USA)
Rebirth / Gallery Max New York (New York, USA)
2022
ART PROJECT TAKASAKI (Gunma, Japan)
Follow the Lines / WHAT CAFE (Tokyo, Japan)
WHAT CAFE x WATOWA GALLERY EXHIBITION -DRIVE UP!- / WHAT CAFE (Tokyo, Japan)
Ofuna Jam 10th anniversary / Jam (Kanagawa, Japan)
Jiyugaoka Megami Festival / Jiyugaoka (Tokyo, Japan)
Yamashiro Art Market / Yamashiro Onsen (Ishikawa, Japan)
Roppongi Art Night / Roppongi West Park (Tokyo, Japan)
03
Mural
2026
Springbeast Festival (Stockholm)
2025
Caption by Hyatt Kabutocho (Tokyo)
Evolute Academia of NY (New York)
Welling Walls (New York)
Freemans Alley (New York)
2024
POD Hotel Brooklyn (New York)
Han-bi-je (Osaka)
2022
POD Hotel Brooklyn (New York)
Dashi Brooklyn (New York)
ART PROJECT TAKASAKI (Gunma)
Painted the school warehouse with all the students at an elementary school (Tokyo)
Sanko Facilities Inc. (Tokyo)
Comota CO., LTD. (Kanagawa)
eplus Living Room Cafe (Tokyo)
AZDEN CORPORATION (Tokyo)
2021
Fujitsu Limited (Kanagawa)
Nishihachi Project (Tokyo)
Ocean's Camp Toramii (Chiba)
Anker Kobe (Hyogo)
eplus Living Room Cafe (Tokyo)
Sumika (Shinjuku, Tokyo)
2020
Hachi Hachi (Shibuya, Tokyo)
eplus Living Room Cafe (Tokyo)
2019
Southbank (London)
Brooklyn Parlor (Tokyo)
Harajuku Mural Project (Tokyo)
04
Collaboration
2024
Evolute Academia of NY / Interactive Installation
CHUMS 2024 Fall/Winter Collaboration
Tateno Elementary School / Interactive Installation
Arisa Makita / Music and visual collaboration
2023
Norikura Kogen Eco-Festival 2023 Entrance Curtains
Macool New Collection 2023 Spring Summer Collaborative Product Design
Favorric Collaborative Product Design
Kodama Project Collaborative Kokeshi Design
2022
Looney Tunes Tweety 80th Anniversary Collaboration Figure
c子あまね "Japan" Digital Album Covers (Sony Music)
Sound Inn "S" Collaborative Logo (BS-TBS)
2021
「oto to e to... ～ART×MUSIC～」LIVE Opening Video
Immersive theatre "Venus of Tokyo" Artwork
SXSW2020 Map Project – Shinjiro Tanaka x Stroly
Re-Bear Project
and more
05
Prizes
2022
SHIBUYA ART AWARDS Nominated - Tokyo, Japan
2020
Asia Digital Art Award Fukuoka- Finalists' Awards- Fukuoka, Japan
2019
D Contemporary Painting Prize 2019 - Nominated- London, United Kingdom
ART BATTLE TOKYO- First Prize- Tokyo, Japan
06