Last updated: 27 October 2026
Jiro Ishihara is the Japanese media artist whose photographs and installations ask how we describe what we see, from the sky to the city. Here you will find our take on his work and where to find it.
Our take on Jiro Ishihara
Ishihara trained in architecture and product design before moving into media art. His question, as he puts it on Saatchi Art: “How do I describe the relationship between objects and myself?”
His photographic series The name of the sky titles each image with a flight code and a date. The idea starts from a gap in language: “there are names for the oceans and mountains, but there is no name for the sky.”
He sells through Saatchi Art, the online gallery, which lists around 100 of his works.
Jiro Ishihara: the essentials
- Born in 1971 in Kanagawa, near Tokyo; lives in Saitama prefecture, according to Saatchi Art.
- Studied architecture and product design at Musashino Art University, media art at IAMAS in Gifu (2000) and at Le Fresnoy in Tourcoing, France.
- Makes interactive installations and photographs about perception, including a long interest in the compound eyes of insects.
- Showed Metroscope at ISEA2002 in Nagoya.
Jiro Ishihara exhibitions
- Perception and Urban Environments, Tokyo Arts and Space, Tokyo, August 2009.
- Metroscope, ISEA2002, Nagoya, 2002.
- No new show has been announced.
Where to buy a Jiro Ishihara photograph
Saatchi Art lists his work, priced in US dollars:
- The name of the sky “CX271_28AUG2019”, $2,280: colour photograph on paper, 27.4 x 39.4 cm (10.8 x 15.5 in), edition of 3, at Saatchi Art. This print was sold when we checked; other works are listed on his Saatchi Art page.
Jiro Ishihara FAQs
What is The name of the sky series?
Photographs of the sky titled with a flight code and date, built on the idea that the sky, unlike oceans and mountains, has no name.
Where is Jiro Ishihara based?
Saitama prefecture, Japan.
Where can I buy Jiro Ishihara’s work?
Through Saatchi Art, which lists around 100 of his works.
What kind of artist is Jiro Ishihara?
A media artist who makes photographs and interactive installations about perception.
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Main image: Jiro Ishihara, The name of the sky “CX271_28AUG2019”. Image courtesy the artist. Framed by CoolCuration. Exhibition dates and prices last checked: 27 October 2026.
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