Join us for a conversation between curator Lena Fritsch, curator Jason Waite and artist Nancy Lupo, moderated by curator Sam Thorne, in celebration of our exhibitions ‘Takesada Matsutani. Shifting Boundaries’ and ‘Tetsumi Kudo. Microcosms’ at Hauser & Wirth London.
Though Takesada Matsutani and Testumi Kudo were part of different movements, they are united by their relocation from Japan to Paris, France in the 1960s, where they became acquainted with each other, and by their rejection of established modes of making.
The talk will take place in the South Gallery Showroom, with seats being allocated on a first come, first serve basis. Tickets are free but advance booking is essential.
Please note that the North and South Galleries will be open from 10 am – 6 pm.
About Lena Fritsch
Dr Lena Fritsch is an award-winning curator and writer, dividing her time between London, UK and Berlin, Germany. A specialist in Japanese art and an experienced translator of the Japanese language, Fritsch has published monographs on the work of Ishiuchi Miyako (2026) and Morimura Yasumasa (2008), and the first English-language overview on post-war Japanese photography, ‘Ravens & Red Lipstick: Japanese Photography since 1945’ (Thames & Hudson, 2018/2024). Her extensive curatorial career has seen her work at prominent institutions such as the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK; Tate Modern, London, UK; and Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany. She has orchestrated over 15 exhibitions, including ‘Tokyo: Art & Photography,’ Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (2021), which garnered numerous 5-star reviews. In 2022, she co-curated the Roppongi Crossing Triennial of contemporary Japanese art at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan. Fritsch has taught at the University of Oxford and University of London, and lectures regularly at museums. She holds a PhD in Art History from Bonn University, Germany and also studied at Keio University, Tokyo, Japan.
About Jason Waite
Dr Jason Waite is a curator, writer and cultural worker. His work focuses on collective practice, ecological critique and radical imaginaries emerging from sites of crisis. He is part of the collective ‘Don’t Follow the Wind,’ which curates an ongoing exhibition in the Fukushima exclusion zone in Japan and co-edited the book ‘Don't Follow the Wind’ (Sternberg Press, 2021). Waite was curator at Casco Art Institute in Utrecht, Netherlands and has organized over 50 exhibitions globally. He holds a PhD in Contemporary Art History and Theory from the University of Oxford, an MA from Goldsmiths, University of London, and was a Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program in New York NY. Waite was the 2024 – 2025 Postdoctoral Fellow of the Arts at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies in Finland. Currently, he teaches at St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford, is the editor of Art Review Oxford and is an affiliated fellow at the Panel on Planetary Thinking.
About Nancy Lupo
Nancy Lupo is an artist currently based in Berlin, Germany. Her sculptures engage with material culture and language, exploring how collective fantasies and emotions become embedded in form. She tests ambiguity and confusion as conditions that are both unsettling and full of potential. Lupo holds degrees from The Cooper Union, New York NY and Yale University, New Haven CT. Since 2024, Lupo has been a professor at Kunsthochschule Mainz, Germany. Her recent exhibitions include: ‘Tom,’ Stadtgalerie, Bern, Switzerland (2026); ‘Final Closet,’ Chiaromonte (2025); ‘Disko,’ Kevin Space, Vienna, Austria (2025); ‘Our Villas at Apollo,’ Mainz, Germany (2025); ‘Princessletthewind,’ Kunstverein Schwerin, Germany (2025); and ‘Hallelujah Electricity,’ Good Weather, Little Rock, AR (2025). Her forthcoming exhibition, ‘Meow Meow Real Estate,’ opens on 14 March 2026 at the Nicoletta Fiouricci Foundation in London, UK, followed by an exhibition at Spike Island, Bristol, UK opening on 29 May 2026.
About Sam Thorne
Sam Thorne is a curator and writer, committed to education, experimentation and exchange. He has been Director General of Japan House in London, UK since 2022. Prior to that, he was Director of Nottingham Contemporary, Artistic Director of Tate St Ives and Associate Editor of Frieze Magazine. Thorne has overseen over 30 exhibitions, lectured widely at universities and art schools and written numerous catalogue essays and articles.
About ‘Takesada Matsutani. Shifting Boundaries’
The Ōsaka-born artist Takesada Matsutani takes over our North Gallery for his first exhibition in London in over a decade, coinciding with his 60th year of living and working in Paris, France. The artist’s diverse practice is concerned with the reshaping of matter, from transforming acrylic, oil paint and graphite to more unconventional materials like vinyl glue and cotton. This exhibition, organized with Olivier Renaud-Clement, ranges from the sensational sculpture ‘The Magic Box’ (1988), to brand-new works that epitomize his experimentation with vinyl glue.
About ‘Tetsumi Kudo. Microcosms’
In a wide-ranging practice spanning four decades, post-war Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo (1935 – 1990) explored the implications of what would later be termed the Anthropocene in prescient work that interrogated the proliferation of mass consumption, the rise of technology and environmental degradation. On view in the South Gallery, this exhibition is Kudo’s first in London in over a decade, displaying a selection of works that include the artist’s signature cages, cubes and gardens.
The exhibitions are on view through Saturday 18 April.
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Please be advised that photographs will be taken at this event for use on the Hauser & Wirth website, social media and in other marketing materials.
