Hanako Murakami: Radiant Force – Artist Talk

Join artist Hanako Murakami and curator Antares Wells

September 26, 2026

Join exhibiting artist Hanako Murakami and curator Antares Wells for this talk event, held as part of the exhibition Hanako Murakami: Radiant Force at The Japan Foundation, Sydney. Gain insight into the exhibition as Murakami discusses her practice across photography, film, installation and olfactory works, her deep interest in photography’s origins, and her longstanding exploration of the materials, processes and histories through which images come into being.

Following the talk, attendees will have the opportunity to ask the speakers questions in a 15-minute Q&A session.

The in-person talk event will also be available to view online via livestream on the JPF Sydney Facebook page.

Artist
Curator

Artist

Hanako Murakami

Hanako Murakami (b. 1984, Chiba) is a Paris-based artist whose work explores the origins of photography and the persistence of lost or invisible images. Moving between historical photographic processes, artificial intelligence, eye-tracking technologies, installation, and video, she investigates how acts of seeing give rise to images.

In recent years, her research has focused on Joseph Nicéphore Niépce and the invention of photography. Through archival research, the reconstruction of early photographic experiments, AI-generated imagery, and the visualisation of visual attention, she reconsiders the status of images before and after photography.

Murakami was nominated for the New Discovery Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles in 2019. Recent exhibitions include the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Tokyo, 2026), Guangzhou Image Triennial (Guangzhou, 2025), and the 10th Daegu Photo Biennale (Daegu, 2024). In 2026, she was a fellow of Villa Albertine in New York, where she conducted research in major photographic archives and collections across the United States. Her works are held in the collections of the Centre national des arts plastiques – CNAP (France) and the J. Paul Getty Museum (United States).

Curator

Antares Wells

Antares Wells is a curator and writer with a specialisation in photography. Her curatorial and research interests span nineteenth-century photographic practices through to contemporary photography, film, and installation. She is Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, and has previously held curatorial positions at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, and the University of St Andrews, where she worked with internationally significant photographic collections and leading contemporary artists. Antares has presented research in photography at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; University of California at Riverside; and Concordia University, Montréal; and serves on juries for photographic prizes in Australia and internationally.