Group Show: 7 Artists
Kosaku Kanechika (Kyobashi)
Starts 12/13
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Artists
Yutaka Aoki, Junko Oki, Ataru Sato, Yosuke Takeda, Ryu Takeda, Hiroto Tomonaga, Tenki Hiramatsu
KOSAKU KANECHIKA is pleased to present the exhibition “GROUP SHOW: 7 ARTISTS” at the Kyobashi gallery from December 13th, 2025 to February 21st, 2026.
The show presents work by Yutaka Aoki, Junko Oki, Ataru Sato, Yosuke Takeda, Ryu Takeda, Hiroto Tomonaga, and Tenki Hiramatsu.
Yutaka Aoki expands the scope of painting through an examination of the relationship between painting and the surrounding world, and through the many new possibilities that are born from that exchange. This exploration results in works that migrate freely between two- and three-dimensionality, and in works that respond not only to the material and production process, but also to their relationship with the audience’s gaze. Aoki’s approach also seeks to capture the ever-changing countenance of paintings, articulated as single moments along the axis of time. By repeated experimentation and the application of newly discovered processes, Aoki is continually rediscovering painting itself.
Junko Oki engraves stories of life onto textiles, with each stitch placed meticulously by hand. Without the guide of an underdrawing, she creates unique motifs and patterns by freehand stitching and by rejecting the structured tradition of embroidery. Although her works display seemingly rudimentary techniques, the artist’s instinctive approach awakens a visceral reaction in viewers. Through her unique embroidery and careful attention, Junko Oki breathes new life into aged textiles, frames, and other objects. These objects, with years of stories already embedded into them, are revived by Okiʼs hand through a series of attentive stitches. They include everything that came into being, and chronologies that once existed but are now gone. At the core of Okiʼs creative process is a discovery of new horizons through layered impressions of time.
For Ataru Sato, drawing and painting are tools to chronicle and interpret the complexity of human life around him, exploring personal themes in strikingly honest and at times provocative imagery. He sees art as being created by people who are alive to express their lived experiences and has no aspiration to create art for art’s sake, art that is novel, or art that seeks to be meaningful. Sato refuses to shy away from fantasies, shame, loneliness, pain, or indulgences, matters that are typically considered indecent or immoral but are nonetheless integral aspects of the psyche. He opens a direct portal into a psychological investigation of his lived experience.
In his practice, Yosuke Takeda investigates what is possible with the medium of photography. In his acclaimed “Digital Flare” series, he captures the phenomenon of flares that appear when a digital camera is facing a strong light. Rather than a genuine subject captured by the camera’s system, a flare is something that emerges from the relationship between the subject and the system, the light that floods the interior of the camera frame. Describing the phenomenon generated by his process, Takeda says that it is “evidence of its means, and is a mark of its existence.” He relativizes the premise that in photography the subject exists outside the camera’s system, being something that is objectified, with its image captured by the camera. His practice, in which he takes as his subject “the complex relationship between the means (camera) and the purpose (subject),” produces works that build on various types of experimentation conducted throughout the history of photography, as well as being beautiful, powerful, and intense.
Ryu Takeda’s paintings evoke the imagery of accidental stains or scars. He remarks that the memories and characteristics of the rural forests from his childhood are expressed not only through his sight, but through sound, smell and touch. Takeda, who often compares the act of painting to an excavation, paints as if to unearth the unconscious realm that has been lost through verbalization and classification.
Hiroto Tomonaga captures transitory moments in which things he is looking at ever so briefly appear to him as something else, and strives to render this in painting. He plays with shifts in perception, the way vision alternates between foreground and background, or interprets one thing as another, all of which is similarly echoed in the repetitive back and forth in his layering, removing, and mark making with paint. In this way, the changes that occur before his eyes gradually translate into paint on the canvas, becoming fixed on the surface. Working with subject matter close to himself, this process is a means for Tomonaga to ruminate on distance and depth, both physical and emotional. While the resulting paintings are fixed, they feel as if they might resume moving once again, and express the sense of helplessness the artist himself feels regarding the world he sees before him.
Tenki Hiramatsu’s paintings begin without specific motifs, and figures subsequently emerge from applying and reworking oil paint over weeks or months, rotating the work in 90° increments. Figures materialize from the depths of initially unrelated backgrounds and traces of brushstrokes, as abstract compositions and colors respond to one another. Hiramatsu describes his creative process as an exploration of existence without purpose.
This presentation for GROUP SHOW: 7 ARTISTS will consist of approximately 20 works by the seven artists.
The show presents work by Yutaka Aoki, Junko Oki, Ataru Sato, Yosuke Takeda, Ryu Takeda, Hiroto Tomonaga, and Tenki Hiramatsu.
Yutaka Aoki expands the scope of painting through an examination of the relationship between painting and the surrounding world, and through the many new possibilities that are born from that exchange. This exploration results in works that migrate freely between two- and three-dimensionality, and in works that respond not only to the material and production process, but also to their relationship with the audience’s gaze. Aoki’s approach also seeks to capture the ever-changing countenance of paintings, articulated as single moments along the axis of time. By repeated experimentation and the application of newly discovered processes, Aoki is continually rediscovering painting itself.
Junko Oki engraves stories of life onto textiles, with each stitch placed meticulously by hand. Without the guide of an underdrawing, she creates unique motifs and patterns by freehand stitching and by rejecting the structured tradition of embroidery. Although her works display seemingly rudimentary techniques, the artist’s instinctive approach awakens a visceral reaction in viewers. Through her unique embroidery and careful attention, Junko Oki breathes new life into aged textiles, frames, and other objects. These objects, with years of stories already embedded into them, are revived by Okiʼs hand through a series of attentive stitches. They include everything that came into being, and chronologies that once existed but are now gone. At the core of Okiʼs creative process is a discovery of new horizons through layered impressions of time.
For Ataru Sato, drawing and painting are tools to chronicle and interpret the complexity of human life around him, exploring personal themes in strikingly honest and at times provocative imagery. He sees art as being created by people who are alive to express their lived experiences and has no aspiration to create art for art’s sake, art that is novel, or art that seeks to be meaningful. Sato refuses to shy away from fantasies, shame, loneliness, pain, or indulgences, matters that are typically considered indecent or immoral but are nonetheless integral aspects of the psyche. He opens a direct portal into a psychological investigation of his lived experience.
In his practice, Yosuke Takeda investigates what is possible with the medium of photography. In his acclaimed “Digital Flare” series, he captures the phenomenon of flares that appear when a digital camera is facing a strong light. Rather than a genuine subject captured by the camera’s system, a flare is something that emerges from the relationship between the subject and the system, the light that floods the interior of the camera frame. Describing the phenomenon generated by his process, Takeda says that it is “evidence of its means, and is a mark of its existence.” He relativizes the premise that in photography the subject exists outside the camera’s system, being something that is objectified, with its image captured by the camera. His practice, in which he takes as his subject “the complex relationship between the means (camera) and the purpose (subject),” produces works that build on various types of experimentation conducted throughout the history of photography, as well as being beautiful, powerful, and intense.
Ryu Takeda’s paintings evoke the imagery of accidental stains or scars. He remarks that the memories and characteristics of the rural forests from his childhood are expressed not only through his sight, but through sound, smell and touch. Takeda, who often compares the act of painting to an excavation, paints as if to unearth the unconscious realm that has been lost through verbalization and classification.
Hiroto Tomonaga captures transitory moments in which things he is looking at ever so briefly appear to him as something else, and strives to render this in painting. He plays with shifts in perception, the way vision alternates between foreground and background, or interprets one thing as another, all of which is similarly echoed in the repetitive back and forth in his layering, removing, and mark making with paint. In this way, the changes that occur before his eyes gradually translate into paint on the canvas, becoming fixed on the surface. Working with subject matter close to himself, this process is a means for Tomonaga to ruminate on distance and depth, both physical and emotional. While the resulting paintings are fixed, they feel as if they might resume moving once again, and express the sense of helplessness the artist himself feels regarding the world he sees before him.
Tenki Hiramatsu’s paintings begin without specific motifs, and figures subsequently emerge from applying and reworking oil paint over weeks or months, rotating the work in 90° increments. Figures materialize from the depths of initially unrelated backgrounds and traces of brushstrokes, as abstract compositions and colors respond to one another. Hiramatsu describes his creative process as an exploration of existence without purpose.
This presentation for GROUP SHOW: 7 ARTISTS will consist of approximately 20 works by the seven artists.
Schedule | Dec 13 (Sat) 2025-Feb 21 (Sat) 2026 Opening Hours Information
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Website | https://kosakukanechika.com/en/exhibition/7_artists_2025/ | ||||
| Venue | Kosaku Kanechika (Kyobashi) https://kosakukanechika.com/en/ | ||||
| Location | 3F Toda Building, 1-7-1 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8388 | ||||
| Access | 3 minute walk from exit 6 at Kyobashi Station on the Ginza line, 5 minute walk from exit B1 at Nihombashi Station on the Ginza and Tozai lines, 5 minute walk from exit A7 at Takaracho Station on the Toei Asakusa line, 7 minute walk from the Yaesu Central exit of JR Tokyo Station. | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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