in October 2024, i debuted my first solo art show as anne hero in tokyo. you can read the artist statement here.
during my art show tour i was supported with video art by antiwrld and live music by several DJs, including my friend and regular collaborator dazegxd. it was important for me to invoke my inspiration via sight and sound because american club culture is vastly different than tokyo nightlife; i wanted to give context to the world i pull from.
additionally, some of my gallery spaces were inside of music venues. this was a first for me, as gallery spaces typically have inconspicuous white walls that do not compete with the artwork. it was a welcome challenge to adapt my body of work to each venue. it was also affirming to hear, "your art was perfect for the hardcore; gabber; hip hop; jungle; dub that i played." my art belongs to music and its stewards. my work has a high BPM.
i urge all travelers to visit these establishments if you're in the neighborhood! order a matcha milk from over the moon.. 
my seven shows in japan:
♪: music venue
✽: gallery or retail space
tokyo has immaculate infrastructure for visual art. in addition to an impressive range and density of art galleries catering to all skill levels, you may notice almost every music venue makes space for, at minimum, interesting objects and artwork, and at maximum, entire walls dedicated to artwork and live painting. maybe america will catch up in this regard someday... osaka was wonderful to me as well and i would love to do more over there in 2026, as well as kyoto.
thank you for my husband for being my other brain in all this madness. thank you to DJ for carrying a CRT from akihabara with mr. hero even though you weren't wearing a belt for some reason and your pants kept falling and also for supplying your awesome video work. thank you to daze for trusting me with dazegirl.
thank you to all of the venues in osaka and tokyo who let me tape things to their walls..
and i wouldn't have been able to do this show without my tokyo friends waves and the kogas tai and tann. thank you three for your hospitality and kindness and for believing in me maybe anything is possible..
one idea i would love to explore in my "nightlife anthropology" series is perhaps intentionally localizing my figures— how is chicago's fashion different from san francisco? and so on... people responded well to zed— i think i owe him a large cutout... live digital drawing on a CRT was a lot of fun; people loved to watch me color, even though that's my least favorite part... i really enjoyed being interviewed by tai koga, and i think if i had a suitable MC it could be fun for my north america art shows next... everybody loved my use of fabric on stranger I and they were tickled that I bought that fuzzy leopard sticker from an elder gyaru (maybe i should have included that detail in the description)... i see more mixed media work in my future... my goal for next year's art show tour is bringing sculpture and moving artwork...