Michael Hoppen Gallery

About the Gallery
The Michael Hoppen Gallery opened in 1992 and is founded on a passion for photography. As a gallery we are renowned for nurturing the careers of new and interesting artists and exhibiting them alongside acknowledged nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century photographic masters. We are passionate about the photograph and all that concerns this extraordinary art form. 

The breadth of our collection is mirrored in the diversity of our collector base. Our clients range from public and private museums, corporate collections and experienced collectors to those who are embarking upon their first photographic purchase. We aim to present all those who come to the gallery with something unexpected; to broaden their perception of what photography can be while providing the expertise to understand it. As such we maintain a vigorous publishing program to compliment our exhibitions and expose our artists to a broader audience.

In 2007 we published Eyes of an Island in conjunction with a major exhibition of influential Japanese photography from 1945 to the present day. Over the last twenty years we have cemented our relationship with Japan and now have one of the most extensive collections of post-war Japanese photography outside of Asia. We are proud to represent many important Japanese Estates and artists.

The last two decades has seen photography grow from a marginalised art form to one of the mainstays of the contemporary art world. Although collaborating with numerous non-photo specific collections and institutions we still enjoy the boundaries imposed upon us by the photographic medium. As T.S Eliot so adroitly noted "When forced to work within a strict framework, the imagination is taxed to its utmost and will produce its richest ideas". Photography constantly pushes the boundaries that define it, and as such we are constantly delighted and challenged by the artists we work with. We hope you, our audience, are equally intrigued.

About the Presentation
Michael Hoppen Gallery will debut at Independent 20th Century with a solo presentation of Ishiuchi Miyako (b. Gunma, Japan, 1947), a pivotal figure in international contemporary photography. Ishiuchi’s practice is profoundly rooted in personal and collective memory, noted for grainy, raw, and emotionally charged black and white images. Ishiuchi’s early work prefigured contemporary interest in subjective documentary and autobiographical narratives, a thread that runs through much of today’s photographic and lens-based art.

Having been awarded the Ihei Kimura award in 1978, Ishiuchi was chosen to create a record of the Tokyo Dental College in the Suidobashi district of Tokyo. The series was published in 1981 and acclaimed for its homage to the history and spirit of the institution. These vintage prints have rarely been exhibited and are presented here as a group for the first time outside of Japan.

Ishiuchi Miyako represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 2005 and has been the subject of solo retrospectives at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Yokohama Museum of Art. Further accolades include the 50th Mainichi Art Award, and the Hasselblad Award. Ishiuchi’s work is collected by private collectors and institutions including SFMoMa, MFA Boston, MFA Houston, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Getty and the NGA Washington.