Shinjiro Tanaka is a Tokyo based multimedia artist born in Los Angeles and raised in Tokyo. His practice moves across murals, paintings, installations, live painting, audiovisual performance, and site specific projects.
After studying economics at Keio University, Tanaka began his career in advertising, working within the structures of media, business, and urban culture. The 2011 earthquake and its aftermath became a turning point, leading him to question the way he wanted to live and what it meant to create. He later moved to New York, where he studied graphic design at Parsons School of Design while immersing himself in street dance, music, fashion, theater, and the layered cultures of the city.
His work explores the space between opposing forces: city and nature, body and technology, chaos and order, destruction and repair. At the center of his practice is the idea of “Hazama,” a Japanese word that refers to the in between. Rather than seeking fixed categories, Tanaka is drawn to thresholds, transitions, and things that exist between states.
Lines, dots, repeated patterns, and improvisational gestures form the foundation of his visual language. These elements are deeply connected to his background in dance, where rhythm, movement, and physical response come before verbal explanation. For Tanaka, drawing is not only a visual act, but a way of tracing invisible emotions, memories, and fractures within society.
In his recent series “Broken, yet still golden,” he uses gold lines to mark cracks, wounds, and divisions. The work reflects on the quiet dignity that remains within what has been broken, whether in personal memory or in the wider social landscape.
Working across different media and contexts, Tanaka approaches each site as a living environment. His public and spatial works are not simply decorative interventions, but attempts to listen to the history, energy, and relationships embedded in a place, and to create new points of connection through art.
Shinjiro Tanaka
Multimedia Artist / Creative Director
History
Solo Exhibition
2026
Broken, yet still golden / Historia Gallery (Tokyo)
2025
Lost and Found / Grassroots Yokohama (Kanagawa)
2024
CHUMS x SHINJIRO TANAKA Collaboration Exhibition / CHUMS Omotesando (Tokyo)
2023
Reverse / All Day Gallery (Tokyo)
Rebirth / Gallery Max New York (New York)
2022
Dashi Joint / Dashi Brooklyn (New York)
a Moment of Eternity / Medel Gallery Shu (Tokyo)
2021
Somehow Connected / eplus LIVING ROOM CAFE＆DINING (Tokyo)
Untitled / NORA HAIR SALON (Tokyo)
2020
Augmentation / Why not? (Tokyo)
Carpe Diem / eplus LIVING ROOM CAFE＆DINING (Tokyo)
Memento Mori / Pulplism (Tokyo)
2019
PEN / Why not? (Tokyo)
REINCARNATION / RIGNA TERRACE TOKYO (Tokyo)
NYC STREET ART PROJECT / Port of Call Daikanyama (Tokyo)
2018
FACE / Sora Zenon (Tokyo)
01
Group Exhibition
2025
HOWLIN' / All Street Gallery (New York)
2024
Future is now Group Show / 54 Crosby St (New York)
SIW2024 x SHIBUYA ART SCRAMBLE / Shibuya Cast (Tokyo)
2023
WHAT CAFE SPECIAL MARKET 2023 AUTUMN / WHAT CAFE (Tokyo)
Square Spaces / KEY TERRACE HOTEL SEAMORE (Wakayama)
2022
The Playroom of Fine Art / between the arts gallery (Tokyo)
Follow the Lines / WHAT CAFE (Tokyo)
“Artist ! Artist ! Artist !” Matsuya Contemporary Art Selection / Matsuya Ginza (Tokyo)
WHAT CAFE × WATOWA GALLERY EXHIBITION -DRIVE UP!- / WHAT CAFE (Tokyo)
Unplugged / TRiCERA Museum (Tokyo)
WATOWA GALLERY EXHIBITION “THE SELECTED vol. 2" / Elephant Studio (Tokyo)
2021
Experiments and Thoughts - Four Artists / KITTE Marunouchi (Tokyo)
CONNECT / KIMPTON SHINJUKU TOKYO (Tokyo)
LIGHT BRAIN Vol.1 / ITOKI TOKYO XORK(Tokyo)
POWER OF ART / WHAT CAFE (Tokyo)
Spring Healing / Tokyo Art Studio (Tokyo)
Born New Art / Shibuya Scramble Square (Tokyo)
ART MARKET TENNOZ (Tokyo)
WHAT CAFE POP UP SHOW with 100 ARTWORK (Tokyo)
02
Live Performance
2025
Hustle Break Tokyo 10th anniversary / CHACARA (Kanagawa)
2024
This&That Vol. 47: “Colors of the City” / BnA_WALL (Tokyo)
Chaga-Uma Festival / Shakujii Hikawa Shrine (Tokyo)
Ascott Unlimited 40th Anniversary Dinner Event / THE UPPER (Tokyo)
New Style Hustle Party / REP music cafe (New York)
Kichi-On / Dig Bowl Kichijoji (Tokyo)
Arifuku Onsen Music Festival / Arifuku Onsen (Shimane)
Night Lyf / Lyf Ginza (Tokyo)
Evergreen / 3pm Cafe (Tokyo)
2023
Joint Jam Session / Secret Venue (Tokyo)
Evergreen / 3pm Cafe (Tokyo)
WHAT CAFE SPECIAL MARKET 2023 AUTUMN / WHAT CAFE (Tokyo)
Late Night Groove -Tokyo Edition- (Tokyo)
Sunday Afternoon Party / Sunday (Tokyo)
CHUMS CAMP 2023 / Rising Field Karuizawa (Nagano)
For the future 2023 / Nakaikebukuro Park (Tokyo)
Future is Now / Bushwick (New York)
CUPA Dance Showcase / Symphony Space (New York)
Rebirth / Gallery Max New York (New York)
2022
ART PROJECT TAKASAKI (Gunma)
Follow the Lines / WHAT CAFE (Tokyo)
WHAT CAFE × WATOWA GALLERY EXHIBITION -DRIVE UP!- / WHAT CAFE (Tokyo)
Ofuna Jam 10th anniversary / Jam (Kanagawa)
Jiyugaoka Megami Festival / Jiyugaoka (Tokyo)
Yamashiro Art Market / Yamashiro Onsen (Ishikawa)
Roppongi Art Night / Roppongi West Park (Tokyo)
and more
03
Mural
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