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Echoes in Colour, Mapping the Intimate
Standing Pine Tokyo
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Artists
bdoulaye Konaté, Januario Jano, Tegene Kunbi, Yusuff Aina
STANDING PINE Tokyo is pleased to present ‘Echoes in Colour, Mapping the Intimate’, a group exhibition opening on Saturday, 20 September 2025. This exhibition brings together the works of four artists—Abdoulaye Konaté, Januario Jano, Tegene Kunbi, and Yusuff Aina. In ‘Echoes in Colour, Mapping the Intimate’, the personal becomes a universal language, and material becomes a vessel for memory, resistance, and reflection. Their diverse practices explore the intersection of storytelling, cultural identity, emotional interiority, and historical memory through colour, form, and materiality.
Working primarily with textiles, Abdoulaye Konaté transforms cloth into narrative. Rooted in Malian tradition, his vibrant, large-scale fabric compositions merge the figurative with the abstract to address urgent sociopolitical and environmental concerns. Through carefully orchestrated colour and pattern, Konaté maps the collective anxieties of a globalised world, while drawing on local aesthetics and cultural symbolism. His work reflects not only the surface of cloth but the depth of African histories and the weight of lived experience.
Januario Jano navigates the space between tradition and modernity, body and memory. Born in Angola and educated in London, Jano draws from the tensions of transnational identity, using performance, photography, textiles, and installation to explore how the self is shaped by place, heritage, and contemporary culture. For Jano, material is not neutral—it is the grammar of personal and political storytelling. His work positions the body as a site of layered memory, bridging ancestral pasts with the immediacy of now.
In Tegene Kunbi’s paintings, colour itself becomes a field of meditation and assertion. Using oil and textile, Kunbi composes rhythmic arrangements of geometric shapes and bold chromatic contrasts that speak to the visual language of his Ethiopian heritage. His works echo the hues and textures found in Orthodox and Coptic manuscripts, murals, and woven fabrics, yet they assert a contemporary vision grounded in personal experience. Each canvas is a landscape—simultaneously interior and cultural—mapped in colour and repetition.
Yusuff Aina is a multidisciplinary artist who mainly works with acrylic and installation. From an early age, he was passionate about art and used creativity as a guide in life. His practice explores psychological and social themes such as alienation, trust, and belonging, and how these affect both people and their environment. Aina creates alternative spaces and identities, pushing the boundaries of a constantly evolving visual language. He often uses cartoon-like figures, motifs, and fantastical landscapes to tell stories. Central to his work are patterns called “ainasm”—flowing, cord-like forms that surround “eniyan,” a recurring character representing the unity of humanity and the strength to endure. The word ainasm comes from the artist’s last name, Àina, which in Yorùbá tradition refers to a child born with the umbilical cord around their neck. Ènìyàn means “human being.”
Together, these four artists form a resonant chorus—each voice distinct, each practice rooted in the personal, yet resonating far beyond the individual. Echoes in Colour, Mapping the Intimate invites viewers to experience these works not as distant or opaque, but as deeply connected and emotionally immediate. It encourages us to feel the rhythm of tradition within contemporary expression, and to see how the inner worlds of artists can illuminate shared histories, cultural landscapes, and imagined futures.
Working primarily with textiles, Abdoulaye Konaté transforms cloth into narrative. Rooted in Malian tradition, his vibrant, large-scale fabric compositions merge the figurative with the abstract to address urgent sociopolitical and environmental concerns. Through carefully orchestrated colour and pattern, Konaté maps the collective anxieties of a globalised world, while drawing on local aesthetics and cultural symbolism. His work reflects not only the surface of cloth but the depth of African histories and the weight of lived experience.
Januario Jano navigates the space between tradition and modernity, body and memory. Born in Angola and educated in London, Jano draws from the tensions of transnational identity, using performance, photography, textiles, and installation to explore how the self is shaped by place, heritage, and contemporary culture. For Jano, material is not neutral—it is the grammar of personal and political storytelling. His work positions the body as a site of layered memory, bridging ancestral pasts with the immediacy of now.
In Tegene Kunbi’s paintings, colour itself becomes a field of meditation and assertion. Using oil and textile, Kunbi composes rhythmic arrangements of geometric shapes and bold chromatic contrasts that speak to the visual language of his Ethiopian heritage. His works echo the hues and textures found in Orthodox and Coptic manuscripts, murals, and woven fabrics, yet they assert a contemporary vision grounded in personal experience. Each canvas is a landscape—simultaneously interior and cultural—mapped in colour and repetition.
Yusuff Aina is a multidisciplinary artist who mainly works with acrylic and installation. From an early age, he was passionate about art and used creativity as a guide in life. His practice explores psychological and social themes such as alienation, trust, and belonging, and how these affect both people and their environment. Aina creates alternative spaces and identities, pushing the boundaries of a constantly evolving visual language. He often uses cartoon-like figures, motifs, and fantastical landscapes to tell stories. Central to his work are patterns called “ainasm”—flowing, cord-like forms that surround “eniyan,” a recurring character representing the unity of humanity and the strength to endure. The word ainasm comes from the artist’s last name, Àina, which in Yorùbá tradition refers to a child born with the umbilical cord around their neck. Ènìyàn means “human being.”
Together, these four artists form a resonant chorus—each voice distinct, each practice rooted in the personal, yet resonating far beyond the individual. Echoes in Colour, Mapping the Intimate invites viewers to experience these works not as distant or opaque, but as deeply connected and emotionally immediate. It encourages us to feel the rhythm of tradition within contemporary expression, and to see how the inner worlds of artists can illuminate shared histories, cultural landscapes, and imagined futures.
Schedule | Sep 20 (Sat) 2025-Oct 18 (Sat) 2025 Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception Sep 20 (Sat) 2025 17:00 - 19:00 | ||||
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Website | https://standingpine.jp/en/exhibitions/237 | ||||
| Venue | Standing Pine Tokyo https://standingpine.jp/ | ||||
| Location | 3F Terrada Art Complex Ⅰ, 1-33-10 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0002 | ||||
| Access | 9 minute walk from exit B at Tennozu Isle Station on the Rinkai line, 10 minute walk from the South exit of Tennozu Isle Station on the Tokyo Monorail line, 9 minute walk from the North exit of Shimbamba Station on the Keikyu line. | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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