Japanese Contemporary Art

Lena Fritsch is a specialist in Japanese contemporary art with a PhD in art history from Bonn University, where she focused on Japanese photography. She is also an experienced translator of Japanese.

A native German from Cologne, Fritsch spent part of her childhood in Osaka and has lived in Japan multiple times. Her fluency in Japanese, coupled with her strong connection to the country, fostered a natural development of interest in Japanese art. This passion was further cultivated in 2004–2005, when she was awarded a Monbukagakusho scholarship from the Japanese government, allowing her to study at Keio University, Tokyo. During her studies, Fritsch was employed by NHK Japan on a regular basis as a presenter and reporter.

Fritsch is the author of the first English-language overview on post-war Japanese photography, Ravens & Red Lipstick: Japanese Photography since 1945 (Thames & Hudson 2018/2024). She has published extensively on Japanese art, including monographs on the work of Ishiuchi Miyako (2026) and Morimura Yasumasa (2008), and articles in The Art Newspaper, Aperture, Burlington Magazine, Cloakroom, IMA, etc. In 2012, Fritsch translated Moriyama Daido’s book The Tales of Tono into English, to coincide with a survey of the artist at Tate Modern. For numerous museums and gallery clients, she has translated and edited Japanese writings on art, including by artists Katase Kazuo, Nakahira Takuma and Tomatsu Shomei, and critics, such as Kasahara Michiko and Taki Koji. Her PhD and book The Body as a Screen (2011) examined the human body as a motif in Japanese photographic art of the 1990s, with particular reference to socio-cultural issues.

Fritsch brought artists and avant-garde movements from Tokyo to international attention in 2021–2022 through the Ashmolean Museum’s critically acclaimed exhibition and catalogue Tokyo: Art & Photography. In 2022, she was invited to co-curate the Roppongi Crossing triennial of contemporary Japanese art at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. Furthermore, she has curated displays for several private clients.

Fritsch lectures internationally on the subject of modern and contemporary Japanese art. She has taught courses at the University of Oxford, SOAS (University of London), Victoria & Albert Museum, and Art Academy Münster. She chairs talks with Japanese artists at museums and institutions like the Japan Foundation, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, and various galleries.