HARUMI’S SUMMER
HARUMI’S SUMMER was an exhibition project that was a collaboration between Harumi Yamaguchi and YOSHIROTTEN, a Japanese graphic artist and art director. It was presented in the summer of 2018 at the Ginza Graphic Gallery in Tokyo, Japan. It has been described as an artistic “jam session”, combining the creative abilities of two Japanese artists. The combination of Yamaguchi’s Harumi Gals, described as “illustrations that strum the tunes of the times”, and YOSHIROTTEN’s modern “new generation” graphics and art help to bridge the gap between generations. The exhibition includes Yamaguchi’s paintings, her Harumi Gals, all dressed in swimwear or posing in a summer-related scene. All of her pieces on the wall contain her iconic airbrush style of painting and show her classic pin-up style. The paintings are brought together by the swimming pool in the middle of the room. Throughout the different rooms of the exhibition, the Harumi Gals can be seen all over the walls and have been arranged in a specific way by YOSHIROTTEN. Yamaguchi personally requested for YOSHIROTTEN to collaborate with her on this project and be the one to arrange and set up her pieces. She first worked with him 8 years prior to the HARUMI’S SUMMER exhibition, making CD jackets together. Yamaguchi and YOSHIROTTEN have found a valuable partner in one another and have collaborated on another exhibition after this one. It was called HARUMI’S WINTER and opened in January 2020, approximately a year and a half after the HARUMI’S SUMMER exhibition. The Japanese art community hopes to see more collaborations between these two incredible artists in the near future.
Above: Harumi Yamaguchi and YOSHIROTTEN sitting together at the HARUMI’S SUMMER exhibition
Below: Harumi Gals at the HARUMI’S SUMMER exhibition
Sources
https://www.dnpfcp.jp/gallery/ggg/eng/00000727
https://autre.love/harumi-yamaguchi
https://www.ritegallery.com/blogs/articles/harumi-yamaguchi-x-yoshirotten