Blanton Live: Conversations for Now

WHEN/WHERE: 2 p.m., Sunday, April 28, 2024
Auditorium (located in our Check-in building), Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, 200 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Austin, TX 78712

GET TICKETS FOR HOW EDO-ERA ART INSPIRES JAPANESE POP CULTURE 4/28 BELOW!

MUSEUM ADMISSION: In-person tickets to Blanton Live include admission.
Not yet a member? Join today! (Please note, regular museum discounts such as UT ID Holder, Military, K-12 Teacher, Student, and Senior do not apply for special events.)

Samurai. Kabuki. Cherry Blossoms. Mount Fuji. These captivating subjects of Japanese woodblock prints, on view in the Blanton’s exhibition The Floating World: Masterpieces of Edo Japan, were part of the popular culture of their time. Now, Edo-period iconography and techniques live on in today’s pop culture from Japan and beyond—including manga, anime, zines, contemporary painting, and street art.

Two acclaimed experts, anime author and professor of Japanese studies Susan Napier, and internationally recognized contemporary artist Gajin Fujita, come together to discuss the many fascinating ways historic Japanese art surfaces in contemporary culture. They’ll also consider how Japanese pop culture has captured peoples’ imaginations across the globe. Followed by an audience Q&A.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Gajin Fujita (American b. 1972) is an internationally acclaimed LA based artist who is known for his pop style that mixes references to traditional Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts, contemporary manga, and other pop culture imagery on large-scale wood panel paintings. Made with spray paint, gold and silver leaf, and Sharpie Mean Streak markers, his lively images often combine graffiti lettering with Japanese motifs such as samurais, geishas, dragons, tigers, and fish.

He received a BA from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles and an MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has exhibited internationally, and his work is in the collections of the Hammer Museum at UCLA, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Blanton Museum of Art to name a few.

Dr. Susan Napier is an author, researcher, and professor of Japanese literature, films, and culture. Currently she is the Goldthwaite Professor of Rhetoric and Japanese at Tufts University in Massachusetts, she has also taught at Harvard University, The University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and the University of Texas in Austin. She has been featured on The M Dash and TEDxTufts. Napier is the author of 5 books including Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle: Experiencing Japanese Animation and Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art.

MUSEUM ADMISSION: Blanton Live tickets include admission to the museum (hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and attendees are invited to view the exhibition The Floating World: Masterpieces of Edo Japan from the Worcester Art Museum before or after the program. 

Check our Before You Visit web page to plan your visit and to read further information on available amenities. If you have any questions on accessibility, please email us on accessibility@blantonmuseum.org or call us during museum opening hours on 512-471-5482.

Featured image: Gajin Fujita, Phony Disillusion, 2018, spray paint, Mean Streak, paint markers, 12k white gold and 24k gold on four wood panels