Art Collaboration Kyoto(ACK) 2025 (Kyoto)

Tanaami was born in Tokyo in 1936, graduated from Musashino Art University, and awarded a special prize by the Japan Advertising Artists Club in 1958. Having immersed in American counterculture and pop art since the 1960s, he was an independent artist who had been actively crossing boundaries to pursue his creative endeavors, which range from animation to silk screens, manga-like illustrations, collages, experimental films, paintings, three-dimensional works, and more, without restricting himself to any medium or genre. Inspired by his encounter with Andy Warhol, he had continued to experimentally challenge the major themes tackled by contemporary art today, such as art and design, art and products, everyday beauty, and the public and art, while using the design methodology of editing to the present day. Through more than half a century of creative activities, he has gained a high reputation worldwide as one of the pioneers of pop art, which symbolizes postwar Japan. Tanaami's recent major exhibitions include Keiichi Tanaami: Adventures in Memory (2024, The National Art Center Tokyo, Tokyo), TANAAMI!! AKATSUKA!! That’ s All Right!!(2023, PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO, Tokyo)the solo exhibitions Manhattan Universe (2022, Venus Over Manhattan, New York), A Mirror of the World (2022, Nanzuka, Tokyo), Tokyo Pop Underground (2019, Jeffrey Deitch, New York), and Keiichi Tanaami (2019, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland); as well as the group exhibitions Tokyo: Art & Photography (2021, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), The World Goes Pop (2015, Tate Modern, London), International Pop (2015, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA), and many others. His work is in the permanent collections of MoMA (New York), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Art Institute of Chicago, M+ (Hong Kong), National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.), and Hamburger Bahnhof Museum for Contemporary Art (Berlin).

In 1992, Oda received the Weekly Shonen Jump Tezuka Award for Wanted! Serialization of ONE PIECE began five years later in 1997. In the same year, the first tankobon (individual) volume of the series was released. In 1999, the title was made into an animated series. The first ONE PIECE exhibition was held in 2012.

In 1992, Oda received the 2nd place prize in the 44th Tezuka Award for Wanted! (under the pseudonym "Tsuki Himizu Kikondo"). In 1993, Oda was selected for the 104th Hop Step Award for Ikki Yako. In 2006, ONE PIECE chosen in the Japanese Media Arts Festival 100 Manga Selection. In 2012, Oda received first prize in the 41st Japan Cartoonists Association Award for ONE PIECE. In 2018, Oda received the Kumamoto Prefecture Honorary Award.

Go Nagai made his manga debut with Meakashi Polikichi (serialized in Bokura) in 1967. In 1968, he began publishing Harenchi Gakuen in Weekly Shonen Jump. The series was a tremendous hit. In 1972, he launched two series, Devilman in Weekly Shonen Magazine and Mazinger Z in Weekly Shonen Jump, while the animated versions were being developed for television simultaneously. In 1973, he started serializing Cutie Honey in Weekly Shonen Champion. His works span a wide range of genres, from gag comedy to dark fantasy, science fiction, and horror. As of 2024, he continues to publish series. In 2019, he was awarded the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier) by the French government.