Past Exhibitions
Sat, Oct 8, 2016 - Sun, Feb 5, 2017
Jurgen Lehl is celebrated for his eponymous line of products, which make the most of natural materials in original clothing, textile, and jewelry designs. Lehl made Japan his home in the early 1970s, and “On the Beach” showcased his lamps, created from pieces of plastic washed up on the shores near his Ishigakijima island home,, along with his photographs contrasting the beauty of the sea with its current polluted state. The exhibition also featured a special display by American photographer Chris Jordan, who has worked to document how ocean plastic is killing birds. “On the Beach” contained a message from the sea that urged us to return our focus to nature, the source of all human life.
Lehl moved to Japan in 1971 after working as a textile designer in Paris and New York during the 1960s. He founded his own company and began designing clothes, furniture, kitchenware, and more. He is now known as a pioneer of lifestyle design. In 2006, Lehl conceived and launched the Babaghuri label, which focuses on handicraft and environmentally friendly production.
In a unique display of playful satire, Lehl combined colorful flecks of plastic waste to create lighting fixtures that shed light on marine pollution, a grave issue that deeply concerned him. In 2015, these lamps were displayed at the Artipelag in Stokholm, Sweden, and at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in posthumous exhibitions following Lehl’s fatal accident in September 2014.
Selected Group Exhibitions
Feb 2015 EARTH MATTERS: When Natural & Creative Forces Meet, Artipelag (Stockholm, Sweden)
Jul 2015 An Art Exhibition for Children: Whose place is this?, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Apr 2016 Chris Jordan + Jurgen Lehl | Midway: Message from the Gyre, KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival
Related Publications
Tadanori Yokoo, Made In Japan: The Textiles Of Jurgen Lehl (Meid (Tokyo: Parco, 1983)
Leonard Koren, New Fashion Japan (New York, Kodansha, 1984)
Richard Martin and Harold Koda, Flair: Fashion Collected by Tina Chow (New York: Rizzoli, 1992)
Jurgen Lehl and Yuriko Takagi, Koromo: Jurgen Lehl’s Fabrics (Tokyo: Libro Port, 1997)
Jurgen Lehl, ZOMO (Tokyo: Jurgen Lehl Co.,Ltd., 2002)
Jurgen Lehl, Babaghuri (Tokyo: Jurgen Lehl Co.,Ltd., 2005)
Akito Akagi et al., Cha no hako (Tokyo: Rutles, 2004)
Jurgen Lehl and Yuriko Takagi, DACHI (Tokyo: Rutles, 2005)
Yuriko Takagi et al., Jurgen Lehl to Babaghuri wo sagasiniiku (Tokyo: PHP Editors Group, 2009)
Jurgen Lehl (photography) and Kazuko Koike (text), On the Beach 1 / On the Beach 2 (Tokyo: Hehe, 2015)
Title
Date
Location
Towada Art Center
Hours
9:00-17:00 (admission until 30 minutes before closing)
Closed
Mondays (except for National Holidays, in which case the Center is open on the holiday and closed the following Tuesday)
(Closed Monday, December 26 – Sunday, January 1, 2017, for New Year’s Holidays)
Admission
Exhibition: 600 yen
Collection + Exhibition: 1,000 yen
Children (18 and Under): Free
100 yen/ticket discount for groups of 20 or more
Organizer
Towada Art Center
In cooperation with
Jurgen Lehl Co., Ltd.
Endorsed by
To-o Nippo Press, Daily Tohoku Shimbun, Aomori Broadcasting Corporation, Aomori Television Broadcasting Company, Asahi Broadcasting Aomori Company, Towada City Board of Education
Artwork contributed by
Chris Jordan & KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival
