M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) in Hong Kong, will present Yasumasa Morimura and Cindy Sherman: Masquerades, the first exhibition to bring together the photographic works of Yasumasa Morimura (Japanese, born 1951) and Cindy Sherman (American, born 1954), who rethink identity through staged photographs across time, place, and culture. Both use masquerade as an artistic strategy to explore the relationships between identity, mass media, and history.

Installation view of Yasumasa Morimura and Cindy Sherman: Masquerades, 2024 (Photo: Wilson Lam, Image courtesy of M+, Hong Kong)

Masquerade is the act of manipulating one’s appearance and behaviour—through costumes, makeup, props, and body language—to temporarily become someone else. Since the 1970s and 1980s, Yasumasa Morimura and Cindy Sherman have both drawn inspiration from iconic figures and female archetypes in popular culture and art history, creating staged photographs that explore the construction of identities from their respective cultures and contexts.  

Installation view of Yasumasa Morimura and Cindy Sherman: Masquerades, 2024 (Photo: Dan Leung, Image courtesy of M+, Hong Kong)

Presented as part of the Pao-Watari Exhibition Series, Yasumasa Morimura and Cindy Sherman: Masquerades includes works from significant early series by each artist, tracing the origins of their practices of reimagining iconic imagery from the fields of art, cinema, and mass media. The exhibition features four suites of images, which range from whimsical to darkly satirical, that question gender and cultural conventions. They invite us to think critically about the roles we play in life and the influences that make us who we are.

Portrait of Yasumasa Morimura (Photo: Yasumasa Morimura, © Yasumasa Morimura, Image courtesy of the artist)

Portrait of Cindy Sherman (Photo: Inez and Vinoodh, © Cindy Sherman, Image courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth)

Exhibition Dates:

14 Dec 2024 - 5 May 2025

Location:

Cissy Pui-Lai Pao and Shinichiro Watari Galleries, L2

M+, West Kowloon Cultural District, 38 Museum Drive, Kowloon

For more information, please visit M+ website.

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