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Eiko at the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art

The Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art is hosting the exhibit “Eiko Ishioka: I Design Information” from September 9 to November 12, 2023 at 21-1 Tobata-ku Nishi Sayagatanimachi, Kitakyushu City 804-0024 Fukuoka.

Please click on preview images for a closer look.

Read more about the exhibition at Tokyo Art Beat.

The exhibition showcases Eiko Ishioka’s works—mainly from 1960s to 1980s—when she had her base in Tokyo. The show includes over 500 works, including approx. 150 posters, commercial films, album design, book design and personal artworks. In addition, the show also features Eiko’s own words, expressing her attitude and philosophy towards creativity. Most of the exhibits are on loan from Ryoko Ishioka’s archive collection.

Eiko Ishioka poses a question.
Does “the I” exist in her work?


Eiko Ishioka, who passed away ten years ago, is once again attracting national and international attention. A designer who worked globally, she transcended creative genres and national borders in a career that spanned advertising, theater and film.

This exhibition showcases around 500 works including posters, commercials, artwork and sketches with a primary focus on the work Eiko created in Tokyo from the 1960s through to the 1980s—which caused a sensation at the time—complemented by Eiko’s words that convey her intense and lifelong passion for design.

Eiko’s work in Japan coincided with an era in which advertising represented a cutting-edge culture. The “consumption” of advertising coincided with the major changes that Japan was undergoing at the time. That Eiko’s work for Shiseido and Parco remains relevant even today is nothing short of amazing.

And it is “I design” that is the key that unlocks the secret behind the timelessness of Eiko’s work.

A creator must develop the power of her true self. In other words, the creator must polish her “I.”

Eiko held fast to this belief as she continued her journey of creating innovative visual art, collaborating with leading photographers, film makers and illustrators across all genres.

The target for this exhibition lies in the concept of “I = me” that is at the core of Eiko Ishioka’s creative process. It is our wish that, through Eiko’s visual work and her own words that continue to emanate passion and vibrancy, visitors will be able to experience the vitality of Eiko’s time-transcendent designs.

This is not a “retrospective” exhibition.
Eiko Ishioka is right here, right now.

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Following the end of the exhibition at the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art the show will travel:

April 27 — July 7, 2024
The Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki

September 28 — December 1, 2024
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art

December 14, 2024 — February 24, 2025
The Shimane Arts Center

Summer 2025
Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art & Design

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Special support for the xhibition is provided by the DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion / DNP Art Communications
Project support: S2 Corporation [Hiroko Sakomura]
Supervisor: Team EIKO (Ryoko Ishioka, Koichi Kawajiri (writer), N.G.inc [Hiroaki Nagai (designer)]
Exhibition Poster designed by Hiroaki Nagai

Eiko at the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art Eiko at the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art Eiko at the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art Eiko at the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art Eiko at the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art

Eiko on view at M+ Hong Kong

2023: Eiko Ishioka’s poster “Poster, Tradition et Nouvelle Techniques: 12 Graphiste Japonais” (1984) is currently on display on the façade at M+ Hong Kong, as part of their Collection Highlight Videos display.

See the Eiko Ishioka works in the M+ collection.


Parco Poster on View in Hamburg

2023: Eiko Ishioka’s poster “Parco – 西洋は東洋を着こなせるか (Can the West wear the East?)” is currently on view as part of the exhibition “The F*word – Guerrilla Girls and Feminist Graphic Design” at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg.

Photograph by Henning Rogge, courtesy of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg.

Parco Poster on View in Hamburg