Yuka Mori creates works using materials rooted in the long history of traditional Japanese painting, such as washi (Japanese paper) and natural pigments. Unlike the shrinking of analog production environments as photography becomes increasingly digital, the availability of high-quality materials for traditional Japanese painting is gradually diminishing due to the declining number of artists. While Japanese painting is often subject to certain stereotypes due to its long history and the recurring nature of its themes, Yuka Mori engages with the “traditional” motif of plants to portray the realm between humanity and nature as a fluid, hybrid world. There is a sense of quiet resistance and a re-evaluation of values in her approach—characterized by meticulous observation of the environment where plants thrive, an engagement with one’s own bodily sensations, brushstroke-like movements rarely seen in traditional Japanese painting, and techniques that draw the viewer’s gaze even to the sides of the wooden frame.

Akio Niisato’s artistic endeavors have evolved through a continuous process of self-reflection—one that represents an avant-garde approach to the history of ceramics while shattering it in the literal sense. His representative work “Luminescent” is highly acclaimed as one of the finest examples of contemporary porcelain, created through refined craftsmanship and dozens and of hours of repetitive, meticulous work. In recent years, however, the artist has repeatedly engaged in the act of personally shattering his completed works—thereby bringing to light elements latent within the “Luminescent” vessels—and using that process to evolve into the next stage of creation. From the more complex play of light and shadow created by distortions and incisions to forms that take on a greater sense of materiality through the use of color—the exploration that began with the completion of “Luminescent” knows no end. At times, it brings a fresh sense of surprise to viewers when an artist steps away from the clay and sculpting techniques they are most familiar with to create works of a completely different character. We invite visitors to take a moment to observe how these ceramic works transcend their physical dimensions, manipulating light and radiating out into the surrounding space.

Seiichiro Osa’s paintings refine language, while language expands the scope of his paintings. This impression likely stems from more than just the fact that he is also a haiku poet. What do we feel when we stand before his abstract paintings? From the sense of rhythm born from the interplay of color combinations and the varying scales of their arrangement, to the presence of colors lying deep within other colors, and even deeper still, the subtle bleeding of paint and traces of brushstrokes, and the cracking of the paint itself—they evoke the sensation of something that has gone to its very limits and has then returned, only to continue to wandering across the canvas. But what exactly? The artist’s statement, “capturing landscapes alive withing the mind” suggests that a certain kind of concreteness lies hidden even within abstract paintings. As we observe how certain elements deviate from a steady rhythm while retaining a raw, visceral quality, it seems as though various words are absorbed into the painting, only to return in a different form, creating a kind of back-and-forth exchange. Painting has an extensive history, and in Osa’s works, one can sense something akin to a resolute spirit—a yearning for that sense of timelessness.

Kouichi Tabata creates highly distinctive works by painting across two offset panels, which are later aligned into a rectangle to resolve that initial misalignment—a process that generates a new kind of misalignment, thereby completing the painting. In addition to paintings, Tabata also creates video works and collages, but what is consistent throughout is his focus on “movement.” It is an established fact in the history of visual culture—and now common knowledge—that certain roles once played by painting were taken over by photography and eventually evolved into moving images. However, painting possesses an aesthetic that transcends mere function; shaped over the course of its long history in tandem with the social conditions and sensibilities of each era, it continues to be the subject of lively debate across the world today. The time and space found in Koichi Tabata’s paintings give rise to a “painterly space” born precisely from this misalignment, and it seems that this is indeed one of those places where history culminates—a place where we are permitted to enjoy and savor that “painterly space.”

Futoshi Miyagi’s “Banner (from Klagender Gesang)” is a work inspired by the final movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 31, “Klagender Gesang” (Song of Lamentation). Embroidered by the artist onto the lampshade are the text instructions that Beethoven marked on the score: “Ermattet, klagend” (‘Exhausted, weeping’) and “Nach und nach wieder auflebend” (‘Coming to life again’). As a queer artist, Futoshi Miyagi uses a variety of mediums from film to photography, objects, and text to create works that seek to foster exchange across barriers such as history, nationality, and sexuality—often employing the fences surrounding the U.S. military bases in his native Okinawa as a metaphor for these boundaries. This work could be likened to a beacon illuminating the way forward—a voice that, while never loud, conveys important values and gradually extends its reach.

Yuko Mohri’s signature work “Decomposition” features a mechanism in which electrodes inserted into fruit measure internal resistance and convert the resulting values into sound and light. At first glance, the fruit removed from their branches and placed before us appear to be devoid of life; nothing more than objects destined to decay. However, within them, living cells continue to interact with one another, giving rise to phenomena that are imperceptible to the human senses. Through this installation, visitors can experience the entire life cycle of fruit, right up to its final moments, by means of flickering light and resonating sound. As per this work, Yuko Mohri has created installations that convey—via sight, sound, and at times touch—fragments of the complexity that truly lies latent within this world. “Decomposition” serves as a mechanism where the very process of decay and loss give rise to something new. We invite visitors to take their time and experience the shifting interplay of light and sound as it unfolds day by day.

Trevor Yeung has created works that draw inspiration from human-managed ecosystems—such as aquariums, houseplants, and moss—to visualize the delicate interdependencies and the forms of symbiosis found within them. His works do not present relationships between individuals or within limited groups; instead, they depict fluid, polycentric networks formed by diverse entities that loosely connect and disconnect. One of the works on exhibit, “Night Mushroom Colon (Toilet in Tokyo)” takes as its motif nightlights—which offer a sense of security amid the darkness of night—and the proliferative nature of mushrooms. When spending the night in an unfamiliar environment, or when one is cut off from others and faces the loneliness of being alone—what kind of psychological state is evoked, and what memories are created, by the glow of artificial lights or the vitality of mushrooms proliferating independently of human existence?

In this work, a “Night Mushroom” is placed in an empty aquarium where once can sense traces of the fish that once lived there. An appealing aspect of this work is the cycle of values that operate outside a purely human-centric perspective.

Tomoya Matsuzaki creates paintings using a unique method that consists of painting an abstract work on a custom-molded acrylic resin support and arranging a series of found objects in front of it. The images depicted could be a landscape, an ancient map, or perhaps a celestial body. How do you as viewers see them? Arranged in front of the paintings are a wide variety of objects—ranging from items so old that it’s hard to distinguish whether they’re natural or man-made, to identifiable industrial products—that the artist has collected from the streets of London, where he is based, the bottom of the River Thames, and the British coastline.
The titles of these works are often named after specific places or events, and once you learn their meanings, the works themselves take on an even more enigmatic quality. Tomoya Matsuzaki also speaks of his interest in a world devoid of human-imposed meaning—something that lies beyond the reach of human comprehension. The pathways created by his paintings, filled with light and a palpable presence, and his timeless objects seem to transport our thoughts and senses to a variety of realms.

Female representation in art, as Midori Wakakuwa points out, is not simply “a reflection of the social reality or mentality within a community,” but rather “something produced by a group of creators with diverse intentions, purposes, and strategies.”[2] Sensitivity to the arbitrary nature of these types of images and responsiveness to the world perceived through her own femininity fostered an attitude that led Shirahata to her current explorations. These same factors also inevitably gave rise to her current trajectory of thought surrounding sexuality and the body.

The title of this exhibition, I breathe, and try to cry quietly, reflects changes in both the artist’s studio practice and personal life. Having moved from Kyoto to Shiga where her living space and studio space are adjacent to one another, Shirahata’s daily life is marked by fewer interactions with other people and a significant reduction in opportunities to be conscious of gender—an environment that seems to have had a considerable impact on her. While this change has offered a sense of release through the ability to “breathe,” the phrase “cry quietly” carries a sense of expecting to be seen, a gesture-like aspect to what should inherently be a private act. The artist further adds the auxiliary verb “to try (doing something)” and thereby imbues the title with a gaze towards the theatrical act of self-performativity. The works exhibited in this show are, in fact, devoid of any expression related to the act of crying, which prompts the viewer to consider the discrepancy between the exhibition’s title and the emotional expressions of the figures in the paintings.

Part of Shiarahata’s creative process involves using a mirror to imitate expressions from reference imagery in order to create a dialogue between that imagery and her own features. In addition, Shirahata began using photography after she moved, which has allowed to her to explore ways of superimposing multiple representations onto a single body. The artist asserts that she has no qualms about becoming someone else and altering her own features, and sees her efforts to encourage viewers to interpret the images she creates through the manipulation of facial expressions as being intertwined with the sense of control unique to a selfie culture where people have no issue with processing and transforming their features for the sake of another’s gaze.

If systems of representation can be understood as having shaped our world in conjunction with power dynamics, then Shirahata’s efforts to immerse herself in existing female representations—reinforcing and reconstructing them, and presenting them to society anew—also seem to imply an intervention in the very framework of these systems and structures. Kako Shiarahata’s first solo exhibition at Yutaka Kikutake Gallery showcases her current interests and efforts through a series of new works, including a large horizontal canvas with three female figures side-by-side, work featuring a new approach that superimposes multiple expressions onto a single figure, and the visceral depictions of her Flower series.

[1] In ancient Egypt and other cultures, this was the name given to a woman’s act of lifting her garments to expose her genitals. This act is also associated with protection from evil spirits and fertility prayers.

[2] Midori Wakakuwa, Hyōshō toshite no Joseizō: Jendāshi kara Mita Kafuchōsei ni okeru Josei Hyōshō [Female images as representation: female representations in patriarchy from a gender history perspective] (Chikumashobo, 1997), 8.

Kako Shirahata

Kako Shirahata (b. 2002, Osaka) is currently based in Shiga.  Her work reinterprets the ancient mystical gesture of anasyrma (a practice of a woman lifting her garments to expose her genitals) as an act that opposes the structures of the unidirectional gaze, and attempts to reconstruct images in pictorial space through the use of motifs such as faces, bodies, and flowers, with a thematic focus on issues surrounding sexuality and the body, exploring the possibility of transforming the passive, harmless existence of something seen into an active subject that flaunts its presence by superimposing the artist’s own features onto female figures in classical art and contemporary visual culture.

Recent major exhibitions include Re; Archive (Mikke Gallery, 2025), More Passion! (Yutaka Kikutake Gallery, 2025), Skeptically Curious: Multiple Approaches to the Transformation of Value (Mizuho Bank Kyoto Branch, 2025), CAPS: Contemporary Art Practice | Studio—CAPS 2025 (Osaka Takashimaya, 2025), Floor—An exhibition of artists recommended by Kengo Kito (Seibu Shibuya Alternative Space, Tokyo, 2024), and Pleiades Edition 1 (Gallery a, Kyoto, 2023). Major awards include the Mynavi ART AWARDfor Excellence at Artists’ Fair Kyoto 2026, the Kyoto University of the Arts Degree Show 2025 Graduate School Award, the Kyoto University of the Arts Degree Show 2023 Excellence Award, and the 44th International TAKIFUJI Art Award Prize for Excellence.

Nerhol's practice of carving into bundles of sequential photographs has matured over the years, expanding into a wider range of fields and delving deeper into expressive possibilities. What began as an initial interest in figurative subject matter has expanded to address everything from naturalized plants to the serialized photographs of Eadweard Muybridge. Recently, Nerhol have expanded into a new material approach where tens of thousands of still images from films are piled one on top of another and exhibited as a cross-section. For this exhibition, Nerhol address the body as the central theme. Tens of thousands of still images are first extracted from videos of professional models before being cut into strips by hand and piled into a single stack. This series invites the viewer into a microscopic time axis, an invisible threshold, a gap in existence that is imperceptible to the naked eye. This work can be described as a confrontation with life’s inhered multi-layered nature, an attempt to drive a wedge into cross-sections of the physical world and capture them from a different perspective. This work is presented alongside a horizontal stack of still images of the same video subject that has been carved into following their usual creative approach. Early versions of this series featured hundreds of layered photographs, but the number of images in this work has been drastically reduced. The contrasting composition—tens of thousands of layers stacked vertically juxtaposed with only a small number of layers that nevertheless are carved from overlapping perspectives of the same human figure—vividly demonstrates the multi-layered nature of Nerhol’s investigations while simultaneously encompassing reflections on time and space.

Time and space, visible and invisible, macro and micro—just as Nerhol have traversed the space between photography and sculpture, so too have they continued to develop and enrich their practice by traversing dimensions and concepts. Through this show’s thematic focus on the body, these investigations open up deeper connections with the viewer and bring an awareness of the possibilities of a rich, multi-layered reality. Petrified wood reflects the figure of the viewer through a mirror-like surface of tin, linking hundreds of years of history with the present. One could argue that the “bodily” theme and practice of this work has developed into something internalized by each viewer, thus connecting those same viewers more deeply to the work. The results of this innovative approach were recognized in 2024 by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology with the Award for Fine Arts. Through constant reflection and practice, the two artists seek ever-new frontiers.

Nerhol

Nerhol are a Tokyo-based artist duo formed in 2007 by Ryuta Iida and Yoshihisa Tanaka. Beginning with explorations into defamiliarizing books, the characters within them, and established forms of images existing in the world, in 2011 they attracted considerable attention with a three-dimensional portrait created by carving into a stack of more than two hundred completely different portraits taken over the span of several minutes. Their practice attempts to unravel the multilayered existence inherent in organic matter that is frequently overlooked in everyday life.

Recent major exhibitions include Nerhol: Seeding and Crows—Misreading Righteousness (Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, 2025), Household Vestiges (Yutaka Kikutake Gallery, Tokyo, 2025), Nerhol: Turning the leaves of horizons (Chiba City Museum of Art, 2024), Tenjin Mume Nusa (Dazaifu Tenmangu, Fukuoka, 2024), Beyond the Wall (Museo Leonora Carrington, San Luís Potosí, Mexico, 2024), Affect (Dai-ichi Life Gallery and M5 Gallery, Tokyo, 2023), critical plane (Yutaka Kikutake Gallery, Tokyo, 2021), Interview, Portrait, House and Room (Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art, South Korea, 2017), and Promenade (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, 2016).

Major collections include Foam Museum (Amsterdam), Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art (South Korea), Fundación AMMA (Mexico), Dazaifu Tenmangu (Fukuoka), Chiba City Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, and Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.

Ryuta Iida was born in 1981 in Shizuoka prefecture. In 2004 he graduated from the Sculpture Course in the Department of Fine Arts at Nihon University College of Art, and in 2014 received his Master’s degree in Intermedia Art from Tokyo University of the Arts. He is currently based in Tokyo.

Yoshihisa Takana was born in Shizuoka prefecture in 1980. After graduating in 2004 from the Scenography, Display and Fashion Design Department in the College of Art and Design at Musashino University, Tanaka received his Master’s degree from the Graduate School of Media and Governance at Keio University.

Countless ceramic lemons are arranged throughout the exhibition space.At the center stands a lemon tree set in a bronze pot. For the artist, the lemon is a motif layered with multiple meanings. It starts with the concrete experience of loss—living with a lemon tree day by day until it eventually withered—and encompasses the emotional fluctuations depicted in Motojirō Kajii’s novel Lemon, as well as the physical sensations evoked by the fruit’s sourness when tasted. The lemons placed on the floor, sometimes stacked vertically, sometimes forming a haphazard pile, bring to mind the legend of “Sai no Kawara” (a riverbed in the netherworld where the souls of children who die prematurely are sent to as punishment for causing great sorrow to their parents, and are made to pray for salvation by building small stone towers), and the practice of stacking stones in Mount Osore as a memorial prayer for children who died before birth. Saito views beliefs as an accumulation of repeated actions and believes that sacredness may reside within the very structure of human behavior itself.  Watering a tree, eating the fruit that it bears, after which it bears more fruit—this daily cycle can be seen as having ties to a form of belief that arises through repeated gestures. This sensation resonates with the creative process of repeatedly producing the same shape from the same plaster mold of a lemon, and here it is also possible to observe a link to the keyword of “corporeality,” which has been an important perspective within her practice

Saito’s inspiration for creating works based on parts of her own body came from observing the ancient forests of Yakushima. Her experience in Yakushima, which catalyzed her thoughts on the “threshold” between trees and her own body, as well as the time she spent living with a lemon tree, watering it and being nourished by its fruit, enabled her to deepen her insight into her own existence within the cycle of life. In this exhibition, she presents several ceramic works that trace her various body parts, such as the abdomen and buttocks. For this exhibition, Saito intertwined more personal territory with the results of her fieldwork, undertaking a new endeavor of working with bronze and creating multiple ceramic lemon works using a plaster mold. Her practice, which has been grounded in the concept of traversing the boundary between human artifice and nature, is progressing to a new stage of inquiry while reexamining important themes such as rituals and beliefs. We welcome visitors to witness Nanami Saito’s efforts—supported by a philosophy exploring sacred sites where nature and human activity intersect, beliefs and corporeality, and the coexistence of humans and non-humans—as well as the outcomes of her practice.

A couple of years ago, when I moved into my new home in Tokyo, I welcomed a lemon sapling into my life and spent about two years living with it. I spent time enjoying the little things, like eating the fruit and nurturing a ladybug pupae I found in a nearby park, protecting it from aphids. However, last year, as my stays overseas and in the countryside continued, the lemon tree withered away.

That loss was much greater than I had anticipated, and coupled with physical and mental exhaustion and other tragic incidents, I found myself unable to accomplish anything for days on end.

Interweaving these personal experiences with fieldwork conducted in Mount Osore in Aomori prefecture and my research on beliefs and sacred sites, in this exhibition I attempt to reconsider the questions of how we mourn the dead as well as the nature and significance of beliefs and sacred sites.   

The process of making a mold of a lemon and creating lemons out of clay one by one, felt like tracing the time I once spent watering the lemon tree every day. The lemon is both a symbol of this exhibition and is a tangible presence for me. The physical sensation reminiscent of the refreshing aftertaste brought about by the sourness of a lemon, is also one of the elements shaping this work.

Goodbye to all the unpleasant things!

—Nanami Saito

With her own physicality and its relationship to the wider world as her central motif, Mari Katayama (b.1987 in Saitama Prefecture, raised in Gunma Prefecture; currently lives and works in Gunma Prefecture) produces an eclectic oeuvre that encompasses a wide range of fields from intricately crafted handsewn objects to photographic works, video, and art projects. Katayama’s work is autobiographical yet evokes universal empathy, questioning how the “roles” and “frameworks” society imposes upon individuals shape the boundaries between self and other, as well as what constitutes “correctness.” In 2025, Katayama produced commissioned works for the Victoria and Albert Museum in the UK (supported by the V&A Parasol Foundation Women in Photography project). This exhibition, which marks the opening of Yutaka Kikutake Gallery’s new Roppongi space, will be the first opportunity to present the artist’s latest body of work in Japan, including the “tree of life” series newly acquired by the V&A.

“tree of life” is a series of ten photographic works in which Katayama herself appears as the subject within a mirrored space constructed by her in her own studio. Surrounded by handsewn objects, her outline reflected in the mirrored surface appears strikingly ambiguous, making it unclear whether it is a mirror image or a real image. Sky and earth, reality and illusion, inside and outside, self and other—the reflections produced by the mirrors blur all contours, as if the generation of proliferating images is repeated infinitely. This work deeply reflects Katayama’s persistent awareness of the plasticity, reproducibility, and endless renewability of digital images—a concern she has held since the early stages of her career—and is also connected to her often-mentioned desire to connect with the “unowned body.”  The portraits were taken together with her largest hand-stitched objects to date: a three metre entity with multiple limbs and a twenty-metre-long tube called “koilia.” They were all photographed by Katayama herself, consciously exploring the power dynamics inherent in the relationship between photographer and subject. Katayama speaks of her own body in tandem with “publicness” precisely because it is an entity that is always shaped by systems, social contexts, and the gaze of others, and this is not unrelated to the “public” nature of her work. Katayama’s image, photographed and objectified, is even detached from herself, and manifests as a site where social, physical, and emotional realities intersect. Her body, emerging within the infinite reflection of mirrors, questions the boundaries between self and other, while simultaneously embracing its public nature as a cyclically renewed body without an owner.

On the other hand, Katayama’s approach of working with a medium-format camera, capturing time with a single shutter release without employing multiple exposures or Photoshop, can be said to be deeply rooted in the physical and corporeal realm, including the act of sewing with a needle and thread. What she attempts within the mirrored space constructed in “tree of life” is to address the sense of distance in relation to the fictional nature of digital images, as well as to materialize them on a physical and spatial level.

To whom does one’s body belong? Revealing the ambiguous boundaries between things through the multiplying mirror reflections, Katayama’s gaze, cast upon living in the here and now while subjected to roles, labels, and various other designations, is also directed at each viewer who stands before her work. Her image persistently questions the relationship between society and the world, self and other, as well as the connections between the world and the self with its many aspects and roles. However, her figure, distorted and disrupted within infinite reflections, also suggests how things are relative to one another. The images that appear before our eyes resemble tree roots and branches, with flowing rivers reminiscent of blood vessels, all of which evoke the cycle of life.

We welcome visitors to take this opportunity to view Mari Katayama’s new work “tree of life”—an extensive project conceived over a period of five years, and a true milestone in her artistic practice.

The air was cold and crisp

I looked up at the ginkgo trees from below and saw an array of yellow and blue dots

People danced amidst the light and leaves falling in the wind

A story about the world outside being inverted and becoming the inside

A cramped urn

Plants growing wildly on the streets of Ningyocho

Two persimmons I received and a diamond-leaf persimmon that I bought myself

I like gathering the seen and the unseen

Mixing them into my usual daydreams, applying them to mineral pigments

Yutaka Kikutake Gallery Kyobashi is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Yuka Mori from Saturday, January 10th to Saturday, February 21st, 2026. Borin in Shiga Prefecture in 1991 and currently based in Kyoto, Mori employs the pigments and supports of traditional Japanese painting to depict two major themes: people and plants. Her sensitivity to nature and plants cultivated by her childhood environment, combined with a deep interest in corporeality stemming from her experience in physical expression, has crystallized in the form of continuous images in which human body and human body, human body and plants, or even plants themselves merge together. For this exhibition, Mori has produced a group of eight or so new works centered around the “Mesh” series, which feature motifs collected more within the context of everyday life and explores the continuum between humans and plants, as well as the organic yet chaotic, mesh-like forms of plants.

Mori’s contemplation of the boundary between humans and nature has been visualized in her paintings as fluid motifs that can be described as both organic and visceral. The works created for this exhibition, while positioned as an extension of her previous endeavors, originate from perspectives more deeply rooted in the artist’s daily life, such as the changing seasons, plants on the streets that caught her eye, landscapes, or even conversations. The interplay between the “figure” that is depicted and the “ground” that is imagined as the background due to remaining unpainted, or the exploration of fluidity where disrupted order transforms “ground” into “figure” and vice versa, is one of the defining characteristics of the worldview she depicts. The “Mesh” series, with its striking organic forms of plants that expand across the entire painting, is an eloquent testament to her undertakings. Mori has also attempted to depict the circulation between the inside and outside of buildings through windows. For this exhibition she has created new organic forms inspired by an acquaintance’s account of experiencing a sensory reversal between the inside and outside of the body.

Images of a continuum where humans and plants merge, which have often been expressed as single entities, are undergoing a decisive shift from the individual to the collective, from motif to landscape, from tree to forest. As the artist mentions, the exhibition is designed for introspection, capitalizing on the limited lighting conditions of the Kyobashi space. Within this space, viewers themselves are prompted to consider perspectives on the boundaries between inside and outside, on circulation, and even on reversal. We invite viewers to observe these fragments of Mori’s imagination and the record of her new endeavors depicting how body and environment mutually encompass each other, both continuously undergoing fluid transformation.

The series of five paintings depicting airplanes feature lyrics from songs about rivers. From a tributary of the Yangtze River that flows through his hometown of Hubei, to the Sakai River in the Sagamihara region of Kanagawa Prefecture where he once lived, and the Kanda River near his current residence—these rivers frequently depicted in his work evoke separation or suggest circularity, at times serving as ambiguous subjects countering the symbolic, and are entities rich in meaning that have also influenced Yang’s identity. Finding affinity in recent years between his theme of distance and airports as liminal spaces, as well as airplanes that embody the concept of departure, Yang explores the depth of his expression by overlaying such imagery with the motif of rivers which has long been recurring in his work. This series, based on complementary color relationships, employs colors that are furthest apart on the color wheel with their brightness adjusted where necessary, suggesting the artist’s attempt to maintain an ambiguous, gray-tinged realm. Furthermore, the selection of colors using the color solid system following the color wheel, reveals an attitude that strives to eliminate as much as possible the symbolism evoked by color. Where is the airplane flying? The relationship between the lyrics evoking a river and the airplane depicted in the center of the painting is left to the viewer’s imagination.

Yang, who lives surrounded by plants, produced two works on canvas for this exhibition inspired by everyday scenes that caught his eye. In the first, the space formed by the lines of leaves and branches is painted over with black, within which the word “believe” appears afloat. The second work, painted in a nearly identical composition but in brighter hues, features the words “totally believe.” What meaning does the word “believe,” adrift within these cave-like spaces reminiscent of a rabbit hole leading to some other dimension, hold in the post-truth era in which we live? The critical perspective cast upon a world where signification and symbolism, strident claims, and conspiratorial facile hopes are consumed one after another resonates with the sense of unease that the paintings exude. Yang also cites influences from William Blake’s use of color and the compositions of Symbolist painter Arnold Böcklin.

The exhibition’s title, “Take me to the river,” is taken from the lyrics of a song by Al Green, in which the feelings of a singer drowning in love evoke various associations such as baptism and purification. Only God knows whether the river he arrives at will purify him or will make him drown deeper. Yang’s paintings, while pop in style, are characterized by a multi-layered structure that incorporates critical themes of identity, history, and contemporary society. In particular, “sense of distance,” which has consistently defined Yang’s artistic practice, as highlighted in this exhibition, has served as a central theme underlying his entire oeuvre. Yang’s practice, built through persistent questioning and repeated creation, harbors the power to provoke profound questions and evoke resonance in us living in today’s increasingly chaotic world.

Since 2022, Mikame has worked on a series entitled Compositions of Disintegration, a body of work inspired by her experience of an earthquake in her studio which made her aware of the gap between the image depicted on the canvas and the actual space of the real world. This work, which maintains a balance with cubist perspectives, seeks to express a sense of gravity—whether falling downwards or floating upwards—centered on the formal relationship between shape and color. In this way, the work succinctly describes Mikame’s approach in this show of extracting and reconstructing phenomenological elements without relying on specific motifs. One example of this experiment in perceiving gravity through color and composition can be seen in inverse and equilibrium (2025) and the way in which the canvas is divided into nine rectangular sections described with a simple brushstroke. Mikame also repeatedly addresses subject matter such as line or light in her work through Building the Image of Lines (since 2019) and Distance of the Light (since 2017). The consideration of invisible lines that appear in the landscape, or an interest in depth perception and a structural analysis of colors that change depending on the light, remain major thematic concerns in Mikame’s painting practice. According to the artist, the new expressive approach to abstraction for the work in this show prompted unprecedented changes in her use of colors and brushes. The observation of everyday events and palm-sized experimental structures forms the base of a highly phenomenological painting practice. Here, Mikame attempts to transform and sublimate the phenomenological interpretations and reconstructions unfolding across the surfaces of her canvases into a purer visual language through the formal medium of abstraction.

What happens when a three-dimensional world becomes a two-dimensional one? Mikame has carried this question with her since the early days of her artistic career, one that has come to fruition in this sharply refined body of new work that incorporates a perspective of translating between dimensions. At the same time, this show can also be seen as the artist’s attempt to answer the historically significant question of what abstract painting is. Continuing to engage with painting against the backdrop of the rapid development of technology in contemporary society has also brought about significant physical changes in her expressive approach, including in the movement of the brush and the strength of the strokes. The results of these efforts to explore new visual possibilities are on full display at this show. We invite you to experience for yourself the trajectory of Mikame’s ideas as she enters into new territory, and witness this crystallization of her painting practice.

Augustine Paredes was born in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines in 1994. He is currently based in Dubai and Frankfurt where his evolving artistic practice explores diasporic perspectives across a range of material approaches including photography, painting, installation, and poetry. Paredes’s work often features traditional materials from the Philippines. Highlighting this exhibition are Devotions (2025), a work made with a material woven from the fibers of pineapple leaves (a fruit that the Spanish introduced to the Philippines in the 15th century) called piña fabric, and In an embrace (2025), a two-dimensional work composed of layers of fabrics and adornments sourced from the Philippines. Piña fabric—an essential part of Paredes’s practice—is an ambiguous material that weaves indigenous traditions with memories of the Spanish colonial era, and, according to the artist, symbolizes tenderness that comes from violence. Thank you, Sorry (2023) is a piece from a series that hints at feelings of regret and remorse through the juxtaposition of immigrants constantly mired in resistance to power and domination alongside the figure of Icarus who famously disobeyed his father and flew too close to the sun.

Through meticulous research, Erika Kobayashi has been collecting invisible subject matter and unspoken memories and emotions while developing various means of expression ranging from painting to writing. Dollar (2024), one of Kobayashi’s works in her ongoing exploration of nuclear power and radiation that began before the Great East Japan Earthquake, evokes a half-century of nuclear history spanning uranium mining, Marie Curie’s discovery of radiation, and the first nuclear bomb test in the United States. Linking the dollar, said to have originated from a currency called Joachimsthaler minted in a city in the region of Bohemia, with uraninite ore discovered in the same location enables this work to provoke a visceral human desire for the suspiciously beautiful radioactive material that glows florescent green under ultraviolet light. Also on display are two-dimensional works that describe the route the Olympic torch took to the 1936 Berlin Olympics under the Nazi regime, the planned route for the 1940 Tokyo Olympic torch relay, and the route Nazi Germany attempted to use to ship uranium from Joachmisthal to Japan in 1945.

Futoshi Miyagi is another artist who utilizes disparate material approaches, including photography, video, text, and installation, to express subtle emotional fluctuations in the forgotten corners of history. This exhibition will feature two pieces inspired by Miyagi’s ongoing American Boyfriend work, a project central to his practice that has developed out of references to various sources of literature, film and music. The title of both pieces, Banner, is also a motif frequently found in Miyagi’s work. Embroidery is a key feature of both the cloth draped over the lampshade with Beethoven’s performance instructions for his Piano Sonata no. 31 “Klagender Gesang,” as well as the wall-hanging piece featuring lyrics from the Okianawan folk song “Nishinjo-bushi” translated into English by Miyagi himself. “We must retrace our history and seek out the quiet voices that have been buried,” he says. Amidst the struggle against ongoing social and political oppression in Okinawa, one can perhaps find modest hope in Miyagi’s work.

Immigrants, minorities, untold feelings and memories—the works of the three artists in this exhibition leverage rich poetic sentiment as they engage with the personal perspectives of those who have been socially ostracized and marginalized to the corners of history. These stories woven by each artist’s unique sensibilities also seem to evince a desire for recovery and reconstruction in the face of disconnection. In today’s world of extreme contradiction and confusion, we invite you to experience the ways in which these three artists tackle the difficult questions of our time. This will also be the first exhibition in Japan for Augustine Paredes.

Augustine Paredes (b. 1994, Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines) is a multi-disciplinary artist questioning what it means to desire in the light of migration, identity, and longing. His expanded photographic practice revolves and evolves in questioning the postcolonial identity of a Filipino in diaspora through different appropriation of artistic mediums, traditional materials, queer gaze, and historical narratives. Augustine works with image-making via photography, painting, poetry, performance, and installation. He lives and works between Frankfurt and Dubai. His work has been exhibited at institutions and galleries such as Paulina Caspari, (Munich, DE, 2025); Jameel Arts Centre, (Dubai, UAE, 2024); Leaks at Foundry, (Dubai, UAE, 2023); Fffriedrich, (Frankfurt am Main, DE, 2023); Gulf Photo Plus, (Dubai, UAE, 2022); and Today x Future, (Quezon City, PH, 2016). He participated in group exhibitions internationally, most notably at Museum Angewandte Kunst, (Frankfurt, DE, 2024), (Delfina Foundation, UK, 2023), Tarzeer Pictures, (Manila, PH, 2023), Gravity Art Space, (Manila, PH, 2023), (Gulf Photo Plus, UAE, 2023), (Goethe Institut, Dubai, UAE, 2021), Middle East Institute (Washington, US, 2021), among others.

Augustine authored art and poetry books entitled Slow Disco (2024), The Bitter Taste of Sweetness (2022), Happy to be here to be happy (2022), Long Night Stands With Lonely, Lonely Boys (2021) and Conversations at the end of the universe (2020).

He is also a co-founder of Sa Tahanan Collective along with curator Anna Bernice delos Reyes.

Augustine has currently been shortlisted for the Vordemberge-Gildewart Scholarship with a forthcoming exhibition in Museum Wiesbaden.

Erika Kobayashi (b. 1978, Tokyo) is based in Tokyo. Her work is inspired by invisible subject matter, time and history, family and memory, and traces of place. In addition to developing expressive approaches through the use of novels, comics, drawing, photography, film and installation, recently Kobayashi’s creative practiced has engaged with the history of nuclear power and radiation, a topic she has been researching since before the Great East Japan Earthquake. Her literary work, Girls, Making Paper Balloon Bombs (Bungeishunju 2024), captures through meticulous research the previously unheard voices of women during the war. Kobayashi won the 78th Mainichi Publishing Culture Award in the category of literature and art for this book, and has received high praise for her writing. Her painting Cherry blossoms 1938 (2025) which is based on Girls, Making Paper Balloon Bombs was part of 14^th Berlin Biennale.

Futoshi Miyagi (b. 1981, Okinawa) is currently based in Tokyo. Centered on a dialogue with his own identity as a sexual minority, Miyagi makes use of a diverse range of material approaches including photography, video, objects, text, printed material, and installation to convey the subtle emotions and feelings that have been overlooked throughout history. The American Boyfriend project, which has evolved from blogs, letters, and other personal communication to video and installation, is a fundamental part of Miyagi’s artistic practice. Among his many talents, Miyagi is involved in operating the first art book store in Utrecht, and also serves as the co-director for the artist collective XYZ collective.