Exhibition/event has ended.
Maaya Katsumata + Yuka Machida "Layer：Filter"
Vacant Room
Finished
SHARE
Artists
Maaya Katsumata, Yuka Machida
Vacant Room is pleased to present the two-person exhibition Layer : Filter, featuring works by Maaya Katsumata and Yuka Machida, on view in two phases: the first from November 15 to November 30, and the second from December 4 to December 14, 2025.
Through the shared theme of portraiture, this exhibition focuses on the plastic and multilayered structures inherent in visual perception. It seeks to visualize the uncertainty of the “image” generated through sight, and the subtle oscillation of the subject (the self) that lies behind it. Visual recognition is never static; it constantly transforms through interaction with its environment and context. The relationship between the seer and the seen is thus established as a reversible structure, resonating with sociologist C. H. Cooley’s theory of the “looking-glass self.” The correlation between vision and subjectivity has long been a central problem in aesthetics and phenomenology. Through the practices of these two painters, the exhibition revisits this inquiry and examines the generative structure of visual experience itself.
Maaya Katsumata portrays women in nightwear—an intimate rather than public form of dress—to depict figures that deviate from socially idealized images of femininity. The female figure, other motifs, and background are separated and reconstructed on the canvas as layered planes. This stratification transforms the motif from something that “exists” into a “fictional image within the frame,” evoking both the transience of information and the lingering residue of illusion. Drawing from real individuals, Katsumata introduces a personal psychological space, where each expression embodies resistance, emptiness, or the conflict inherent in the position of being seen. The compressed composition intensifies a sense of confinement within the pictorial framework, while the surrounding void acts as a pseudo-frame—rejecting the decorative and protective function of a physical frame, and attempting to escape or resist the role of the “viewed.”
The female figure painted for this exhibition is placed under a spotlight-like illumination; the sharp chiaroscuro and contrasts of light and shadow articulate dualities such as self and other, inside and outside. Beyond realism, the shadow itself becomes a motif that embodies meaning—a surface manifestation of psychological and perceptual tension.
Yuka Machida’s vision of humanity is grounded in the image of the imperfect “human as animal.” Since her student years, she has depicted figures whose gazes drift without focus, visualizing the vague anxiety that arises from uncertainty. The reactions produced by such anxiety may appear absurd, yet within them she perceives glimpses of instinctual human truth. The unreal colors and forms in her recent works suggest the presence of individual prejudices—perceptual distortions shaped by personal history. Though the term “prejudice” often carries a negative tone, Machida approaches it without moral dichotomy. The personal values formed through upbringing and relationships are, for her, simply subjective filters—each a unique distortion through which reality is perceived.
Seen through these layers, others appear in altered shapes and hues. The accumulation of such perspectives from others gradually defines the contours of one’s own self. Fiction—the self constructed through others’ prejudices—emerges as though it were truth, revealing the fragile boundary between interior and exterior identity. Her portraits thus explore the complex reciprocity between perception, self-image, and the gaze of the other.
Katsumata’s layered female figures expose the fictive nature of visual imagery and the problem of objectification engendered by the gaze. Machida’s distorted figures, conversely, reveal how subjective bias and perceptual filters shape self-recognition and identity. The images perceived through vision are never singular or stable; they are temporally and spatially fragile, and the subject who perceives them is equally unstable. Layer : Filter invites reflection on this fundamental condition, offering a space to reexamine the very structure through which visual images and the self come into being.
Through the shared theme of portraiture, this exhibition focuses on the plastic and multilayered structures inherent in visual perception. It seeks to visualize the uncertainty of the “image” generated through sight, and the subtle oscillation of the subject (the self) that lies behind it. Visual recognition is never static; it constantly transforms through interaction with its environment and context. The relationship between the seer and the seen is thus established as a reversible structure, resonating with sociologist C. H. Cooley’s theory of the “looking-glass self.” The correlation between vision and subjectivity has long been a central problem in aesthetics and phenomenology. Through the practices of these two painters, the exhibition revisits this inquiry and examines the generative structure of visual experience itself.
Maaya Katsumata portrays women in nightwear—an intimate rather than public form of dress—to depict figures that deviate from socially idealized images of femininity. The female figure, other motifs, and background are separated and reconstructed on the canvas as layered planes. This stratification transforms the motif from something that “exists” into a “fictional image within the frame,” evoking both the transience of information and the lingering residue of illusion. Drawing from real individuals, Katsumata introduces a personal psychological space, where each expression embodies resistance, emptiness, or the conflict inherent in the position of being seen. The compressed composition intensifies a sense of confinement within the pictorial framework, while the surrounding void acts as a pseudo-frame—rejecting the decorative and protective function of a physical frame, and attempting to escape or resist the role of the “viewed.”
The female figure painted for this exhibition is placed under a spotlight-like illumination; the sharp chiaroscuro and contrasts of light and shadow articulate dualities such as self and other, inside and outside. Beyond realism, the shadow itself becomes a motif that embodies meaning—a surface manifestation of psychological and perceptual tension.
Yuka Machida’s vision of humanity is grounded in the image of the imperfect “human as animal.” Since her student years, she has depicted figures whose gazes drift without focus, visualizing the vague anxiety that arises from uncertainty. The reactions produced by such anxiety may appear absurd, yet within them she perceives glimpses of instinctual human truth. The unreal colors and forms in her recent works suggest the presence of individual prejudices—perceptual distortions shaped by personal history. Though the term “prejudice” often carries a negative tone, Machida approaches it without moral dichotomy. The personal values formed through upbringing and relationships are, for her, simply subjective filters—each a unique distortion through which reality is perceived.
Seen through these layers, others appear in altered shapes and hues. The accumulation of such perspectives from others gradually defines the contours of one’s own self. Fiction—the self constructed through others’ prejudices—emerges as though it were truth, revealing the fragile boundary between interior and exterior identity. Her portraits thus explore the complex reciprocity between perception, self-image, and the gaze of the other.
Katsumata’s layered female figures expose the fictive nature of visual imagery and the problem of objectification engendered by the gaze. Machida’s distorted figures, conversely, reveal how subjective bias and perceptual filters shape self-recognition and identity. The images perceived through vision are never singular or stable; they are temporally and spatially fragile, and the subject who perceives them is equally unstable. Layer : Filter invites reflection on this fundamental condition, offering a space to reexamine the very structure through which visual images and the self come into being.
Schedule | Nov 15 (Sat) 2025-Dec 14 (Sun) 2025 Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception Nov 15 (Sat) 2025 17:00 - 19:00 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fee | Free | ||||
| Website | https://vacant-room.com/exhibitions/layer-filter | ||||
| Venue | Vacant Room https://vacant-room.com/ | ||||
| Location | B1F, 4-3ｰ6 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150₋0002 | ||||
| Access | 5 minute walk from exit B1 at Omotesando Station on the Ginza, Chiyoda and Hanzomon lines. 13 minute walk from JR Shibuya Station. | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
Back to Articles
SHARE
No comments yet