Illustration is sacred in Japan, a millennial art. That’s the reason why having Yutanpo Shirane at Gunter Gallery is a very important milestone in the European art market.

Shirane is an illustrator and artist born in 1968 in Saitana (Japan), but living in Tokyo. He is one of the most renowned and respected illustrators in his country, a reference for thousands of Japanese artists who have seen in his delicate work an inspiration not only formally, but also thematically. 

Trained at the Kuwasawa Design School in Tokyo, he has made more than 40 individual exhibitions since 1993, when he started his career, as well as numerous collective shows. He has participated in art fairs such as One Art Taipei, Art Osaka or Art Busan, all of them reference fairs for illustration and contemporary art in Japan.

His work is full of sensuality, creating adult scenarios for a naive and dreamy illustration, which also establishes a link with the West. There are contemporary lolitas, eroticism and everyday life in his work, under a simple, clean line and, in some way, a link to fashion.