Eight years after his remarkable rediscovery at Frieze Masters, Key Hiraga (1936–2000) returns to London. Five exceptional works from 1967–71, generously lent by Loeve&Co, Paris, form the historical heart of the exhibition at Siegfried Contemporary.
In 2018, writing for Le Monde, art critic Harry Bellet singled out Galerie Loevenbruck’s Frieze Masters presentation as "un stand épatant," comparing Hiraga’s exuberant, erotically charged paintings to those of William N. Copley — "en plus dingue si c’est possible" (even crazier, if that is possible).
Already represented in The Museum of Modern Art's landmark exhibition The New Japanese Painting and Sculpture (1966–67) and at the 10th São Paulo Biennial (1969), Hiraga has attracted renewed international attention in recent years. Further exhibitions in Paris followed, notably Key Hiraga, Paris 1964–1974 at Loeve&Co in 2020 and Works 1966–1971 at Galerie Loevenbruck earlier this year. As Nina Siegal wrote in The New York Times in October 2018, Hiraga created "brash, eclectic, erotic images of the risqué night life in the Pigalle district."
Today, Hiraga’s fragmented bodies and feverish colours encounter the seductive sculptural forms of Jonathan Trayte, the precarious porcelain constructions of Tim Fluck and the exuberant ceramic transformations of Takuro Kuwata. Across nearly sixty years, the exhibition reveals unexpected affinities in their explorations of desire and the grotesque.
Our sincere thanks to the artists exhibiting, Loeve&Co for the remarkable Kiraga loans, and to Alison Jacques for the works by Takuro Kuwata.
Photography by Lucie Spillmann.
COITUS INTERRUP—TUS
Key Hiraga · Takuro Kuwata · Jonathan Trayte · Tim Fluck
8 October – 20 November 2026
16 Bassett Road, London W10 6JJ
