KEIICHI TANAAMI: DO NOT BOMB
Red Colored Bridge
2012
NANZUKA is pleased to present “DO NOT BOMB,” a solo exhibition by Keiichi Tanaami (1936-2024), at their gallery “NANZUKA”.
September 12 – October 17, 2026
At the heart of Tanaami’s artist practice lies his childhood experiences of World War II, from the dazzling light of flares seen from an air-raid shelter to goldfish in a fish tank reflecting that light, the delayed roar of bombings echoing through the air, and Tokyo in the aftermath of the war, devastated and reduced to ashes. “Did all of this really take place? My memories are a blur, where dreams and reality coalesce.” (Tanaami). Over the course of his artistic career spanning more than six decades, these formative experiences evolved into a unique visual world, fusing with elements such as the pop culture imagery that would later exert a profound cultural influence on Tanaami.
In 2024, while preparing for his retrospective exhibition at the National Art Center, Tokyo, Tanaami created a new work titled “DO NOT BOMB.” In this work, which connects the spirit of his “NO MORE WAR” series—created in the late 1960s as a critical commentary on the Vietnam War—to the present day, the goldfish motif symbolizing the artist’s own wartime experiences takes on the form of a bomb, while the words “DO NOT BOMB” are prominently displayed across the composition. However, there is something endearing about this goldfish, and the shrapnel scatted by the explosion is depicted as rose petals.
Pleasure of Picasso - Mother and Child No.713
2023
Centered on this work “DO NOT BOMB,” the exhibition brings together a diverse array of works including a selection of previously unreleased new paintings, as well as silkscreen prints, collages, paintings, and animation works created in the 1960s and 1970s. Also featured is the painting “Frederick Ruysh – Theater of Internal Organs” (1987) inspired by 17th-century anatomist Frederick Ruysh’s Thesaurus Anatomicus, a series of wooden sculptural works resembling a miniature garden which symbolically represent the workings of life, the “Pleasures of Picasso” series (2020-2024) created following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and his recent three-dimensional and video works.
This exhibition not only traces the journey of an artist who confronted his memories and sublimated them into creative expression, but also offers an opportunity to reflect anew on the hopes for peace that his works entrust to the future.