British Contemporary:
Michael Craig-Martin/
Damien Hirst/ Julian Opie

Michael Craig-Martin
《Domesticated Nature: Vegetables》
2022

Damien Hirst
《Norcamphor》
61cm×61cm 、2011

Julian Opie
《Day and Night》
2021

Vol.1　23.May Sat. ~ 18.Jun.Thu.2026
Vol.2　1.Aug. Sat. ~ 29 Aug.Sat.2026
*Closed on Sundays, Mondays, National Holidays

imura art gallery is pleased to present “British Contemporary: Michael Craig-Martin / Damien Hirst / Julian Opie.”

From the late 1980s through the 1990s, British contemporary art attracted international attention through a new movement known as YBAs (Young British Artists). Characterized by innovative expressions unconstrained by convention and by strong conceptual messages, YBAs had a profound impact on the development of contemporary art thereafter.

This exhibition focuses on Michael Craig-Martin, a key figure in conceptual art who greatly influenced the YBA generation, alongside works by two leading YBA artists, Damien Hirst and Julian Opie. Craig-Martin’s use of vivid colors, concise line drawing, and conceptual approaches through everyday motifs had a significant influence on subsequent generations of artists. Meanwhile, Hirst developed provocative works centered on themes of life and death, while Opie pursued radically simplified visual representations of people and landscapes, each presenting new perspectives within contemporary art.

Through the distinct practices of these three artists, the exhibition highlights the lineage and diverse appeal of British contemporary art.

*The exhibition will be presented in two parts: Vol.1 (June) and Vol.2 (August). We warmly invite you to enjoy both exhibitions.

“Transient Strata”
Shingo Tanaka Solo Exhibition

exposed fringe #05
600x400mm
inkjet print
2026
@shingo tanaka

4 Sep. Fri.– 27 Sep. Sun. 2026
open on fri., sat., & sun. 12:00-18:00
appointments are available on weekdays
free admission

How do we perceive the structure of objects? We gauge the thickness and depth of an object from the shades of light and dark, and infer its material and hardness from its texture. The brain constructs an image from the various pieces of information gathered by the sensory organs, constantly refining our perception. So, when that information is stripped away, what do we perceive in the object that remains?

“exposed fringe”, the new series presented here, consists of photographic works created by layering burnt paper and capturing it in a state of ‘overexposure’. The details and shadows of the burnt remnants dissolve into the dazzling light, leaving only the undulating fringes created by the fire on the image. In an image that has lost its depth, the layered fragments emerge as a single line. When we recognise this transitional line as a boundary, we discover a new depth of space beyond the depth that should have vanished.

We can let our imagination run wild even from a single line. At the same time, our perception of the world shifts easily depending on the information we receive.

The works in this exhibition—”exposed fringe”, “trans” and “transtructure”—all explore the workings of fluctuating perception amidst the back-and-forth between layering and combustion.

Shingo Tanaka

Shingo Tanaka has consistently explored fire, flame, and combustion through diverse perspectives and multidisciplinary approaches. Throughout his creative practice, he has regarded combustion not as an act of disappearance, but as a generative phenomenon through which new structures emerge.

In his early works, Tanaka created drawings using soot and scorch marks left behind by burned paper, as well as sculptural works in which layered sheets of paper collapsed through combustion to acquire new forms (https://shingotanaka.net/). In these works, fire functioned not merely as a medium of expression, but as a natural force acting upon matter beyond the artist’s intention. By incorporating the passage of time—during which the material undergoes continuous transformation—Tanaka presents a unique approach that reveals a process where creation and dissolution intertwine, rather than a static, finished form.

In recent years, Tanaka’s focus has shifted from the phenomenon of combustion itself to the perceptual mechanisms through which we experience it.

The new series exposed fringe, presented for the first time in this exhibition, consists of photographs made by stacking layers of burned paper and capturing them under extreme overexposure. Information that would ordinarily allow us to perceive thickness, texture, and shadow is erased by excessive light, leaving only the intricate burned edges engraved by fire to emerge on the image’s surface. In this sense, the series proposes a striking inversion: extinguishing fire with light.

We perceive depth through shadow, hardness through texture, and space through contour. But what happens when these visual cues are removed? How does perception reconstruct the object before us? Although exposed fringe employs photography—a fundamentally two-dimensional medium—it paradoxically invites the viewer to generate spatial experience internally, allowing space itself to emerge within perception.

As suggested by the exhibition title, Transient Strata, the “strata” in Tanaka’s work are never fixed deposits. Rather, they are layers generated through an ongoing cycle of stacking paper, burning it, allowing it to collapse, and layering it once again— repeated passages between human-made objects and natural phenomena (human-made objects ⇄ natural phenomena ⇄ human-made objects). The exposed fringe series marks the culmination of this process, capturing these transient strata through the camera and transforming them into photographic works.

In addition to the new exposed fringe series, the exhibition will also present new works from Tanaka’s trans and transtructure series. Oscillating between accumulation and disappearance, construction and collapse, these bodies of work quietly unsettle the foundations of perception that we so often take for granted.

eN arts

Hanayo “Hanayo V - よのなかばかなのよ
Are we not drawn onward, we few,
drawn onward to new era?”

Hanayo
“よのなかばかなのよ
Are we not drawn onward,
we few, drawn onward
to new era?”
© Hanayo

Hanayo
“よのなかばかなのよ
Are we not drawn onward,
we few, drawn onward
to new era?”
© Hanayo & Reiji Saito

Hanayo
“よのなかばかなのよ
Are we not drawn onward,
we few, drawn onward
to new era?”
© Hanayo

Dates: Sep 6 – 27, 2026
* Open during the National Holidays: Saturday, Sep 19 – Wednesday, Sep 23, 2026 Location: Taka Ishii Gallery Kyoto
Opening Reception: Sunday, Sep 6, 17:00 – 19:00

Conversation: Hanayo x Andrew Durbin
(Editor-in-Chief of Frieze Magazine)
Date and time: Sunday, Sep 6, 15:00 – 16:00
By reservation only.

Taka Ishii Gallery Kyoto is pleased to present a solo exhibition of works by Hanayo from Sunday, September 6 through Sunday, September 27. This is Hanayo’s fifth exhibition at Taka Ishii Gallery, marking thirty years since her first solo show in 1996. The exhibition is centered on video and sculptural works inspired by the tale of Hakuga Yama[1], a story connected to the local neighborhood of Yada-chō in Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto. The exhibition also presents the artist’s calligraphy, dance, and photographic sculpture works that are created inside boxes, a form that she has refined in recent years.

Taka Ishii Gallery Kyoto is located in Yada-chō, a neighborhood that preserves and displays Hakuga Yama, one of the floats used in the Gion Festival, Kyoto’s largest religious event that dates back to the 9th century. Hakuga Yama is decorated with a living pine tree and a human figure representing Hakuga, a master of the qin, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument. The tale of Hakuga appears in the writings of the late Ming Dynasty novelist Feng Menglong. For her solo exhibition in Kyoto, Hanayo turned her attention to this story, which has been passed down locally for more than a thousand years.

The Fujifilm that I have always loved was born in 1934 in the foothills of Mount Ashigara. Cameras and color films became common in the 1960s. Yet in less than half a century later, that culture has begun to disappear. For me, the camera and film are tools for recording everyday life, and photography cannot exist outside of this context of the ordinary.

This video work tells the story of Kintarō, who despairs at the state of the world and appears on the verge of death. At the moment he tries to destroy his own camera with an axe, Hakuga, who once destroyed his own qin, appears from across time and comes to his aid. Did Hakuga ever come to regret breaking his instrument?

Would I destroy my camera if there was no one left who could understand my work? And what does it mean for someone to understand?
It all began when Yano-san at Shinchosha saw a set of photographs I had taken as a junior high school student. He made them into a photobook, and Taka-san organized an exhibition for me. The same goes for the dance I’ve practiced since before I can remember, and the karyūkai world of geisha, where I trained every day to perform at banquets. The karyūkai where I trained no longer exists, but I still continue to practice Japanese dance.
Perhaps because I have not changed much as I have grown older, I have never quite understood what it means to change. I simply continue the practices that I am tasked with each day. Now, as the culture of photography is disappearing, it has become physically difficult to continue making photographs. Still I continue, even if somewhat uneasily.

The world today also feels incredibly uncertain. Are we headed toward extinction? Every day, I simply dance and pray.

—Hanayo, August 2026 (excerpt from the exhibition statement)

The video work on display in this exhibition was conceived by overlaying the story of Hakuga with a story about camera and film, which is Hanayo’s own means of expression. Between her emotional unease at the decline of film that is the foundation of her creativity, and the daily repetition of her practice of bodily experimentation within the memory of place and land, Hanayo’s artistic world unfolds at the intersection of anxiety, beauty, and transience. The video work is produced in collaboration with Reiji Saito.

An artist talk with Yuki Kimura will be held on Sunday, September 27 as a closing event. Further details will be announced at a later date.

[1] Hakuga is a tale that appears in the writings of the late Ming Chinese novelist Feng Menglong, which tells the story of the qin master Hakuga (Bo Ya in Chinese) who lived during the Spring and Autumn period (8th-5th century BCE). His friend Zhong Ziqi deeply understood the meaning of his music. When Hakuga played the harp while imagining climbing a high mountain, Zhong Ziqi would respond, “Wonderful, just like the cliffs of Mount Tai.” When Hakuga imagined a flowing river while playing, Zhong Ziqi would reflect, “Wonderful, just like the vast Yangtze or Yellow River.” Following Zhong Ziqi’s death, Hakuga felt that no one remained who was worth playing the qin for, so he broke his instrument, cut its strings, and never played again. This tale is the origin of the term chi-in, “one who knows sound,” which describes a true friend.

Kayako Nakashima Exhibition
Dragging the house

1 Sep. Tue. - 13 Sep.Sun.2026

Yasuko Tsukamoto Exhibition
Visible /Invisible - 2001

22 Sep.Tue. - 4 Oct.Sun.2026

Atsushi Nakamura

16 Sep. Wed. – 27 Sep. Sun.2026
13:00 – 19:00
closed on Mon. and Tue.

KCUA OPEN CALL EXHIBITION
Mingu Lab. Project
When Collecting Becomes Art

25 Jul Sat. - 23 Aug.Sun.2026
Closed on Monday, August 15-16

Artists:
　Michio Aburaya, Satoshi Kunimasa, Hiroyuki Hattori, Hiroshi Fuji, Out of Mingei (Yosuke Jikuhara, Yuta Nakamura), Shintai 0 base unyohou (Ryuichiro Ando), Minako Itai, Ai Iwane, Seira Uchida, Kosuke Yamagishi, Ayaka Seto

Organized by
　Kyoto City University of Arts (KCUA Open Call Exhibition),
　Research Institute for Folk Tools,
　Art and Archives (Mingu Lab),
　Arts Center Akita

Over the course of about 70 years, Akita-born collector Michio Aburaya has been collecting all kinds of objects related to the everyday lives of ordinary people. These objects carry the traces of the lives of nameless people and the accumulated memories of generations. In this exhibition, we focus on Michio Aburaya’s life as a collector, with the participating artists and researchers using the objects in his collection as starting points for new interpretations and interventions, creating a space where folk tools, art, and archives intersect.
Can collected objects be considered art? Our exhibition will open this question.

▼Michio Aburaya
Born in Yokote City, Akita Prefecture, in 1934. Graduated from Akita Prefectural Omagari Agricultural High School. Aburaya first began collecting folk tools in 1950. For 13 years beginning in 1979, he ran the “Folk Tools Museum” inside the “Aoyagi House,” a historical samurai residence in Kakunodate Town (now Semboku City, Akita Prefecture), and served as the director of the “Hiraka Town Rural Culture Heritage Museum.” In 1992, he opened the “Akinomiya Museum” (closed in 2010) in the Akinomiya Hot Springs village of Yuzawa City, Akita Prefecture. In April 2012, he established the “Aburaya Collection” (NPO; disbanded in 2024). Based in Akita City, Aburaya continues to organize and maintain his collection of artifacts.

▼The Research Institute for Folk Tools, Art and Archives (Mingu Lab)
A network-based project made up of researchers, artists, and volunteers who investigate and study the archival of folk tools and folk art through experimentation, observation, and dialogue. Satoshi Kunimasa, Hiroyuki Hattori, Hiroshi
Instagram @aburaya.aca

RYUKO YONEMURA
TEKU・MAKU・MAYAKON

22 Aug.Sat. – 13 Sep.Sun.2026

〈1F+2F〉
TSUKASA Osamu Exhibition

1 Sep.Tue.- 13 Sep.Sun.2026

〈1F+2F〉
Tonia Kos×Michael W Schneider
Two-person exhibition Diversity

15 Sep.Tue.- 20 Sep.Sun.2026

〈1F〉
Iwai Haruka Exhibition

22 Sep.Tue.- 27 Sep.Sun.2026

〈2F〉
Shimizu Yasuko Exhibition

2 Sep.Tue.- 27 Sep.Sun.2026

〈1F+2F〉
the 6th Modern Japanese Painting Exhibition

29 Sep.Tue.- 4 Oct.Sun.2026

〈Back Yard〉
Tonoiso Hidetsugu Sculpture Exhibition

23 Jun.Tue.- 27 Dec.Sun.2026

Co-Program Reframed: 飛光、飛光

1 Aug.Sat. - 23 Aug.Sun.2026

Permanent exhibition

We are now taking the style of apointment only,
Before when you visit for us, Please contact for following mail address.
GALLERY TOMO

Artists:
Taisuke Kondouh, Takeshi Shinohara, Koosuk,
Tsutomu Ishihara, Kazutaka Sugitani, Caori Fujita,
Moeko Machida, Shinya Yamamoto, Takami Miyaoka,
Nobuyasu Yoshida, Minori Ieyama

MAEDA Maki solo exhibition
gathering of weedy things

12 Sep.Fri. – 20 Sep. Sun.2026

MAEDA Maki (b.1992, Nagoya pref, lives and works in Kyoto ) is an artist who creates pop and warm "thought forms.
She has been bringing out different expressions from familiar everyday objects.
She graduated from the contemporary art course at Kyoto SAGA Junior college Of Arts.

SHINTANI Kanako solo exhibition
In Between

22 Sep.Sat. – 27 Sep. Sun.2026

SHINTANI Kanako (b.2003, Hyogo pref, lives and works in Kansai) is an artist who visualizes traces of loss and change.
She is an active graduate student in a painting course at Kyoto Seika University.

ISAKA Kaoru solo exhibition
Forms in Transition

29 Sep.Tue. – 4 Oct. Sun.2026

ISAKA Kaoru is an artist who uses silkscreen printing and sewing techniques to create a unique collage world with metaphorically repeating motifs and colored cloths.
She was born in Osaka in 1998 and is an active graduate student in Seika university.

〈1F〉
OKUNO Kumiko Exhibition

8 Sep.Tue.– 13 Sep.Sun. 2026

〈2F〉
BAN Suzuko Exhibition

8 Sep.Tue.– 13 Sep.Sun. 2026

〈1F＋2F〉
IKEGAMI Masanori Exhibition

15 Sep.Tue.– 20 Sep.Sun. 2026

〈1F〉
OHMORI Akira Exhibition

22 Sep.Tue.– 27 Sep.Sun. 2026

〈2F〉
NAKAMA Yoichi Exhibition

22 Sep.Tue.– 27 Sep.Sun. 2026

NAGAO Kei Exhibition

5 Sep. Sat. - 27 Sep.Sun.2026

Yuriko Yamamoto
“Hikari-Tsugi” - Light Mending

Light Mending

7 Aug.Fri. – 6 Sep.Sun.2026
11:00 ～ 18:00 Monday closed

We warmly invite you to “Hikari-Tsugi” - Light Mending, a new solo exhibition by Yuriko Yamamoto.

Inspired by the Japanese tradition of kintsugi, Yamamoto's luminous sculptures transform fracture into light, exploring themes of healing, resilience, and renewal. We look forward to welcoming you to discover this poetic new body of work.

Yuriko Yamamoto will be at the gallery from 11:00 to 18:00 on August 7–9, August 22–23, and September 5–6. Visitors are warmly invited to meet the artist and learn more about her work through informal gallery talks.

Hikari-tsugi explores the idea that destruction is not the end of existence, but one of its transformations. In Yamamoto's works, light gathers where matter has disappeared, reconnecting what seems irretrievably lost. Fragments of the body, natural forms, and memories are brought together through light, suggesting that absence can become the beginning of a different kind of presence. By reimagining kintsugi as an immaterial act of repair, the exhibition proposes light as a means of reconnecting what cannot be restored physically.

Sam Chatto Exhibition

《Abstract Form XXV》
2026
H11.5 × W13.5 × D16.3 cm
photo: Yuji Imamura
image: Sokyo

5 Sep.Sat.- 26 Sep.Sat.2026

Marino Funahashi EXHIBITION
「Embedded in it」

29 Aug.Sat. – 18 Sep.Fri.2026

group exhibition
SHINOHARA Takeshi
YOSHIDA Nobuyasu
YAMAMOTO Shinya
MIYAOKA Takami
MACHIDA Moeko
KOOSUK
KONDOUH Taisuke
CHON Yuri

12 Sep.Sat. – 30 Sep.Wed.2026

cooperation・curation:GALLERY TOMO

Shuzo Takiguchi
Distance of a Fairy and Sphinx

25 Apr.Sat. – 26 Jul.Sun. 2026
13:00 － 18:00
Open only on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays

Shuzo Takiguchi , who introduced Surrealism to Japan and dedicated his life to its promotion, collaborated with several artists on collection books of poems and illustration both before and after the world war Ⅱ. This exhibition will feature the Distance of a Fairy, a collaboration with Yoshifumi Abe (later known as Nobuya), and Sphinx, a collaboration with six painters and printmakers.

The English title of the Distance of a Fairy is based on the notation written in the copy formerly owned by Nobuya Abe.

The Distance of a Fairy is a collection of poems and illustrations co-authored with Yoshifumi Abe, combining Abe’s collotype-printed pencil drawings with poems by Takiguchi. It was published on October 15, 1937, by Masao Ohshita, and published by Shunchokai (later Bijutsu Shuppansha), priced at 2 yen and had a print run of 100 copies. Many copies are believed to have been lost in the war, and it is considered a representative rare book not only of Takiguchi’s work but also of Japanese avant-garde poetry collections. After the war, it was Takiguchi’s only collection of poems until “Shuzo Takiguchi’s Poetic Experiments 1927-1937” (Shichosha, 1967) was published. At the time of publication, Abe was 24 years old, and two years later, in 1939, he joined the Bijutsu Bunka Kyokai (Art and Culture Association). This book was also exhibited at the first exhibition of the Takemiya Gallery, which Takiguchi took over running free of charge after the war: “Nobuya Abe Solo Exhibition of Drawings and Oil Paintings” (June 1st-15th, 1951). 1937, the year it was published, was also the year that the “Overseas Surrealist Works Exhibition,” realized through the efforts of Takiguchi and Tiroux Yamanaka, toured various locations. The copy exhibited here is the 14th of 100 copies, a dedication book addressed to Yamanaka, and can be considered a monumental work commemorating the introduction and spread of Surrealism in Japan.

The Sphinx is a collection book of poems and prints in which six artists—Tamiji Kitagawa, Q Ei, Shigeru Izumi, Tadashi Kato, Kojin Toneyama, and Toshiko Aohara (Uchima)—each selected one of Takiguchi’s previously published poems and combined it with their own printmaking works. Fifty copies were published in 1954 as a private edition by Sadajiro Kubo. Kubo was also famous as an art critic, collector, and patron, and was actively involved in art education, later becoming the president of Atomi Gakuen Women’s Junior College and the first director of the Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts. The six printmakers were all close to Kubo. Kitagawa co-founded the Creative Art Education Association with Kubo, and the other five artists, as well as Tatsuo Fukushima, who edited the book, and Ryuichi Yamashiro, who designed the cover, were all members of the Democrat Artists Association, which Kubo supported. The copy of Sphinx on display, no.Ⅰ of 50 copies published, is formerly owned by Sadajiro Kubo himself and bears the handwritten signatures of Kitagawa, Takiguchi, and Kubo.

This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see the Distance of Fairy and Sphinx side by side. We hope it will be a starting point to reconsider what each collection book of poems and illustrations meant to Takiguchi himself and to the various artists involved.

《four monkeys》

25 Sep.Fri. - 4 Oct.Sun.2026
CLOSED：10.1(Thu.)
OPEN：12:00-18:00