Shinohara Ushio

Place: Tokyo

Born: 1932

Biography:

Ushio Shinohara is a Japanese contemporary painter, sculptor, and performance artist born in Tokyo in 1932. He is best known for his signature 'boxing paintings', in which he dips boxing gloves in sumi-e ink or paint and then punches at paper or canvas. Shinohara's work is characterized by its energetic confrontations with conventions of both traditional and contemporary artistic canons, filtered through a pop sensibility and an understanding of art-making as a series of ephemeral gestures rather than a results-based process. He is a founding member of the Neo-Dada Organizers and has exhibited his work internationally at institutions including the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Centre Georges Pompidou, the Guggenheim Museum SoHo, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Leo Castelli Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Japan Society. Shinohara and his wife, Noriko, are the subjects of a documentary film by Zachary Heinzerling called Cutie and the Boxer (2013).