Tuesday, Nov. 18, 12:00-1:30 PM

Hall Center Conference Hall

Free & open to the public!

This talk introduces Street Nihonga: The Art of Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, a retrospective exhibition Kaneko is co-curating with Dr. Kris Ercums, opening at the Spencer Museum of Art on February 19, 2026. The exhibition centers on Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani (1920–2012), a Japanese American artist who lived and worked on the streets of New York City from the late 1980s to the early 2000s. Having experienced Japanese American incarceration, the loss of family members in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and the 9/11 attacks, Mirikitani created a body of work that is both deeply personal and politically resonant, using salvaged materials and referencing the traditionalist Japanese painting style known as Nihonga.

This presentation explores how Street Nihonga frames Mirikitani’s artistic trajectory, lived experiences, and contested historical memory. His collage-based practice—combining Nihonga aesthetics with New York street materials, multilingual text, and the participation of others—has challenged us to reconsider categories of art, identity, and belonging, as well as the institutional boundaries of the museum. Reflecting on the curatorial process, Kaneko examines how an exhibition might function as an open space for an overlooked artist’s voice—without reducing it to a singular narrative or a fixed identity.