Stephen Salel
Curator
Stephen Salel is the Curator of Japanese Art at the Honolulu Museum of Art. He received his MA in Art History from the University of Washington, Seattle, where he specialized in early modern Japanese painting. His exhibitions include Lyrically Rebellious: The Prints of Onchi Kōshirō (August 22, 2025 –April 12, 2026) as well as Enduring Impressions: Contemporary Woodblock Prints (August 30–December 14, 2025), which he curated in collaboration with the Portland Japanese Garden / Global Center for Culture and Art in Portland, Oregon. Salel and Curator of Asian Art Shawn Eichman co-authored the book Shunga: Stages of Desire (Skira Rizzoli Publications, 2014). Salel’s most recent publications are “One Hundred Dystopian Views of Japan: Urban Poverty in the Graphic Narratives of Tsuge Tadao” (Impressions: The Journal of the Japanese Art Society of America, Autumn 2023) and “From Expressions of Religious Devotion to Comic Art: The Evolution of Sugoroku Imagery” (Impressions: The Journal of the Japanese Art Society of America, Autumn 2024).