Yoshimi Miyamoto Exhibition

Dual world
181.8×291cm
2024

afterimage
40×40cm
2024

8 Feb.Sat. - 1 Mar.Sat.2025

Imura art gallery is pleased to announce that it will host the sixth solo exhibition by Yoshimi Miyamoto.

An artist who has single mindedly pursued monochromatic painting since her college years, Miyamoto has maintained a simple passion at the center of her artistic journey―to capture the phenomenon we call light.

Her exploration began with presentations of light passing through pressed or freeze-dried flowers, and grew to encompass works such as images of light and shadows cast on sculptures or white-dyed flowers, and impressions of potted flowers bathed in the intense sunlight of a foreign setting. While her paintings incorporate a diverse array of subjects for their motifs, they all embody Miyamoto’s quest to understand how to capture light.

In 2022, Miyamoto unveiled a set of new light-themed paintings that used as motifs the glassware creations of Émile Gallé and the Daum brothers. Describing the process behind them, she explained, “I painted three types of light―light that expresses the radiance of the glass surface, light that passes through the glass from the inside, and light that enables us to distinguish objects. ... As I painted, however, I was gnawed at by this feeling that I wasn’t fully engaging with the glass itself. It was a sense that I was painting the phenomena occurring on the surface of the glass.”

The upcoming solo exhibition will present new paintings that depict plants encased in ice. This new motif goes back to her thwarted attempted to capture glass itself and uses the space artificially created within ice to evoke the world between the front and back surfaces of glass. These works, with their depiction of the explosion of bubbles formed within that tiny space, seem to express the artist’s enduring craving for light.

Be sure to visit and see the latest stop on Miyamoto’s journey of exploring light.

volumetric light 2022 – ’25
Tokuro Kojima Exhibition

11 Mar.Tue.- 16 Mar.Sun.2025

KOMA size KOGEI Exhibition

18 Mar.Tue.- 23 Mar.Sun.2025

El Dorado of “PowerShot G7 X Mark Ⅲ”
Teppei Sako Solo Exhibition

©teppei sako 2025

1.Feb.Sat.– 28 Feb.Fri.2025
open on Fri., Sat., & Sun. 12:00-18:00
appointments are available on weekday

Special thanks to CANON

“El Dorado of “Power Shot G7 X Mark Ⅲ”” is a project started in August 2022, in which I look back at a week’s worth of my daily snapshots, select 10 of them, crop them to square, and present them on Instagram with diary-like text.

“Power Shot G7 X Mark Ⅲ” is the name of Canon compact digital camera I use for snapshots, which I have been using continuously since April 2020. On the other hand, “El Dorado” is the name of the main character in the comic book “Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!” by Sumito Oowara, the title of the fourth animated film produced by Midori Asakusa and students of Eizouken, “Tanuki’s Eldorado”. I was sympathetic to the theme of rejecting “good versus evil,” but I must confess that I was more stimulated by the word and its jarring effect. I watched “El Dorado” (1966, Paramount Pictures), directed by Howard Hawks, on August 23, 2024, and did not find any connection point with my own efforts, nor did I find the film itself very interesting.

I majored in printmaking when I was in art school, and I learned that a rough sketch (original or manuscript) is necessary for printmaking at any rate, and that without it, production cannot begin. I also learned a lot from watching the he professor in my laboratory, who worked on a huge amount of drawings every day, and at the same time, always carried a camera to take snapshots. Even as I graduated from college and continued to work with video and photography, those things were always stuck in a corner of my mind, which led me to ask the question of how I consume my days and led to the “Declaration of Emergency,” a special measures law against the new coronavirus that was passed on March 13, 2020, and When the “Declaration of Emergency” was issued on April 7, 2020, and I was ordered to work at home from April 13, 2020, my daily efforts began with the answer of “going out every day and taking snapshots or video materials”.

Whether it is a photographic or video work, when I start production, having a certain amount of stock material and spending time looking back at it has naturally led to changes in my own work. Both the “LCD Zombies” series, which I began in 2021, and the “Slivers on the Window” series, which I began in 2023, are based on the problem of snapshots and how snapshots are combined.

In this exhibition, my last solo show in Kyoto in seven years, I plan to exhibit mainly snapshots taken during the period when I continued to present “El Dorado of “Power Shot G7 X Mark Ⅲ”” (as of December 15, 2024, there are 71,092 snapshots). In addition, I plan to exhibit photographic works created using those snapshots as material, video works, and my self-published book “CHILL TOWN”.

I would like to invite everyone to see how “looking back at the photographs” will result in my works.

Teppei Sako

SASAKI Masao Exhibition
Nine Spaces

11 Mar.Tue.– 29 Mar.Sat.2025

Yukihiro Nomura & Mitsu Sakura Exhibition

1 Apr.Tue.– 12 Apr.Sat.2025

Hayato Nishimura
"Mounds 2024-25"

Tsukaana No.1 kofun (Iida, Nagano)

12 Apr.Sat. - 27 Apr.Sun.2025

This series is intended to find the way humans live on the layers of the ages, focusing on the ancient burial mounds (called Kofun in Japanese) that exist in the landscape while being irrelevant to the lives of modern people. The ancient burial mounds were built in East Asia, including Japan, as graves where persons in authority sleep a dozen centuries ago. There are many mounds that have been damaged in ways that do not preserve dignity, or are buried in cities and are unable to keep quiet in the urbanization in later generations, especially in modern times. Although the value as a cultural heritage has been recognized and has been the subject of protection and conservation in recent years, there is no buffer between the mounds and the houses, public facilities or public infrastructure due to the already advanced urbanization. The landscape has a strange aspect in which human activities are separated by time and consciousness. – Hayato Nishimura

1977 Born in Shimane, Japan. He is focusing on scientific research sites, scientific things, and landscapes with traces of human activities.

*works of Hayato Nishimura "Mounds" - ebook and print editions / 12 April, 2025 (Published by MATSUO MEGUMI +VOICE GALLER pfs/w |Design and production by Craftive Electronic Publishing Co., Ltd.)

KCUA OPEN CALL EXHIBITIONS
Dessine-Moi Un Mouton
Masahiro Sekiguchi
Mayuko Wada

Mayuko Wada
《horse》
2013
Courtesy of Kodama Gallery

Masahiro Sekiguchi
《Nanashi》
2010
Courtesy of Kodama Gallery

11 Jan.Sat.– 11 Feb.Tue.2025

Organized by
Kyoto City University of Arts

AKI KURODA
/Ｉ/ CHI-KYU / CITY / ２

8 Feb. Sat. – 30 Mar. Sun.2025

〈1F〉
Hiroko Kondo Exhibition
peace －LIFT IT UP－

11 Mar.Tue.- 16 Mar.Sun.2025

〈2F〉
Ayako Yanagisawa Exhibition

11 Mar.Tue.- 16 Mar.Sun.2025

〈1F・2F〉
The 3rd Cozy Japanese Craft Exhibition

18 Mar.Tue.- 23 Mar.Sun.2025

〈1F〉
Takashi Kimura Exhibition

25 Mar.Tue.- 30 Mar.Sun.2025

〈2F〉
Water Color
Mayumi Hashimoto & Haruhi no Kai Exhibition

25 Mar.Tue.- 30 Mar.Sun.2025

〈1F〉
Junichi Taniguchi Exhibition

1 Apr.Tue.- 6 Apr.Sun.2025

〈2F〉
Atsumi Fuji Exhibition

1 Apr.Tue.- 6 Apr.Sun.2025

〈1F・2F〉
Group Exhibition

8 Apr.Tue.- 13 Apr.Sun.2025

〈Back Yard〉
Shinji Kikuchi Exhibition

13 Jan.Mon.- 15 Jun.Sun.2025

People, even those trying to follow God’s laws, sometimes lose the awe of God.
I often meditate on this, while working the stone.

25th anniversary pre-event:
throwing・spaghetti at Kyoto Art Center

1 Feb.Sat. - 16 Mar.2025

TAKESHI SHINOHARA
-SUPER CRITICAL POINT-

29 Nov.Fri.– 14 Dec.Sat.2024
closed on Sun. Mon. and Tue.

Yo!SHIKO solo exhibition
Mirror mirror on the wall,

11 Mar.Tue.– 16 Mar.Sun.2025

Yo!SHIKO (b.2002, Yamaguchi pref, lives and works in Kansai) is an artist who examines what others want and what he wants from a gay-sexual perspective.
He graduated from the contemporary art course at Seian University of Art and design.

NAGATO Moeko solo exhibition
Rolling Stone

18 Mar.Tue.– 23 Mar.Sun.2025

NAGATO Moeko (b.1998, Gifu pre., lives and works in Gifu) is an artist who places herself in physically handicapped environments and expresses what she touches and feels there.
She earned her master's degree in a sculpture course at Kyoto city University of the Arts.

〈1F+2F〉
MATSUIKE AYUMI Exhibition
mindful of...

6 Mar.Thu.– 16 Mar.Sun.2025

〈1F+2F〉
IDEMOTO Takako Exhibition

18 Mar.Tue.– 23 Mar.Sun.2025

〈1F〉
MIZUMOTO Mihoko Exhibition

25 Mar.Tue.– 30 Mar.Sun.2025

〈2F〉
OHNISH Yuna Exhibition

25 Mar.Tue.– 30 Mar.Sun.2025

Chiaki Watanabe Exhibition

1 Mar.Sat.– 23 Mar.Sun.2025

Risako Yahagi Exhibition
Reflection of Life -
Beyond The Light of Glass

「Building of The Light」
2023

18 Mar.Tue.– 6 Apr.Sun.2025
11:00～19:00

In her solo exhibition at Gallery G-77, Osaka-based artist Risako Yahagi presents a retrospective of her glass sculptures, focusing on light, materiality, and transformation. She explores the balance between transparency and opacity, using light to shape form and perception. Her abstract works shift depending on the viewer’s perspective, as shadow and illumination interact dynamically.
Yahagi primarily works with kiln-casting, shaping glass inside an electric furnace to create her sculptures. While some of her works are formed solely from pure glass, others incorporate embedded materials such as silver, copper, and silk, adding complexity to the casting process. These elements interact with the glass in ways that influence light and depth, reinforcing the conceptual themes in her work.

The title Reflection of Life – Beyond the Light of Glass reflects Yahagi’s exploration of shifting experiences and emotions through sculpture. Drawing from personal reflection, fleeting moments, and natural phenomena, she transforms light, transparency, and shadow into abstract expressions of memory, change, and impermanence. Each piece captures an aspect of lived experience—moments of clarity, transitions, and the unseen forces that shape perception. This exhibition features different series, demonstrating her ongoing investigation into how glass can preserve, diffuse, and manipulate light across varying levels of transparency and density, serving as a means of expressing her ideas on perception and transformation.
In her works, Yahagi strips glass of excess, allowing its inherent qualities—light, shadow, and depth—to take center stage. Rather than serving a decorative or functional purpose, her sculptures embrace minimalism, conceptualism, and the language of abstract art, where form and material interaction take precedence over representation. Her works are not fixed objects but evolving compositions, shaped by illumination and transparency. By reducing her practice to its fundamental elements, Yahagi captures experience, emotion, and the intangible beauty of impermanence, inviting the viewer to engage not just with the object itself but with the fleeting interplay of light and perception that defines its existence.

In the Dreamy Silk Drifting in Glass series, Yahagi gives "voice" to silk, capturing its delicate balance between fragility and permanence by suspending it within glass. She explores the relationship between silk as a natural material and glass as an ancient artifact, using transparency and layering to evoke depth and movement. Seeking to represent silk threads drifting as if they had a will of their own, she preserves their ephemeral nature within glass, allowing them to appear weightless and suspended in time. After silkworms spin their cocoons, artisans dye the threads by hand before fabric production begins, yet shredded silk threads are often discarded, their presence lost despite their origins in a meticulous craft. This silk, shaped through the sacrifice of silkworms and human craftsmanship, embodies the interdependence of natural life and human ingenuity. By capturing these fibers in glass, Yahagi transforms them into a metaphor for the coexistence of nature and human intervention, ensuring that even discarded threads remain suspended in light and translucency.

Deep in The Light builds upon Yahagi’s previous explorations, introducing a heightened sense of drama through the interplay of color and form. In this recent work, she foregoes material inclusions, working solely with glass, where the dark, ink-like shapes appear to drift within the transparency, evoking a sense of depth and movement. These shadowy forms contrast sharply with the luminous clarity around them, intensifying how light interacts with the structure. Just as shadows define the presence of light, the darkness within the sculpture enhances its luminosity, making the surrounding transparency more vivid. This contrast creates a sense of uncertainty, drawing the viewer inward and suggesting something unseen or emerging—a reference to the fears or unknown elements that shape human perception.
Darkness in this work is not an absence of light but an essential presence, balancing clarity and obscurity, transparency and depth. Yahagi transforms light into a force that does not simply illuminate but also reveal the unknown, offering a poetic meditation on perception and transformation.

YUKI TAWADA + FUKU FUKUMOTO
SCENT OF THE SKY

YUKI TAWADA + FUKU FUKUMOTO
blue on blue
Photo:Yuji Imamura
Image provided:Sokyo

YUKI TAWADA + FUKU FUKUMOTO
Glaze Warp
Photo:Yuji Imamura
Image provided:Sokyo

5 Mar.Wed. – 29 Mar.Sat.2025

Sokyo is pleased to present the two-person exhibition Yuki Tawada + Fuku Fukumoto : Scent of the Sky. Collaborating as a duo, photographer Yuki Tawatada and ceramic artist Fuku Fukumoto will offer a unique exploration across different artistic mediums.

Mika Shinagawa Exhibition

12 Feb.Wed. – 7 Mar.Fri.2025

Takeru Amano Exhibition
Venus in the Galaxy

22 Feb.Sat. – 17 Mar.Mon.2025