Simon Fujiwara "Who is the Muse?"
Taro Nasu
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Simon Fujiwara
TARO NASU is pleased to present “Who is the Muse?”, a solo exhibition by Simon Fujiwara, opening on January 10, 2026.
This exhibition marks Fujiwara’s first solo show at our gallery in six and a half years. “Who the Bær”, the series he has been developing since 2020, emerged during the pandemic as a “childlike, Dada-esque response to the increasingly nonsensical world of hyper-capitalist entertainment culture.” In the series, “Who,” a bear character with no fixed personality, gender, or identity, roams the fictional “Whoniverse” in search of “What am I?”
The exhibition brings together 13 new paintings in which Fujiwara reinterprets, from a contemporary perspective, the muses created by such masters as Picasso, Velázquez, Fragonard, and Modigliani. As the muse, “Who” sometimes teases or clashes with the original images, or attempts to escape from the canvas. They at times grow weary and disenchanted; at others, peer into a “mirror” only to panic at the monstrous reflection of their own.
Fujiwara is not merely revealing the power dynamics between artists and the depicted, but through “Who,” a figure who is simultaneously subject and object, he gestures toward a rebellion by the created against the creator, and invites us to reconsider the very possibility of asking “What am I?”
The spread of social media has connected us with others we would once never have encountered. It appears to promise a world more attuned to diversity, more willing to let go of preconceptions tied to identity. Yet obsession with images, combined with technology and social platforms, exerts complex pressures on us – giving rise to a backlash in which chaos, aversion, and “fake realities” proliferate. Seemingly more capable than ever of expressing our individuality, we nonetheless find ourselves entangled in a deluge of information. Beset by anxiety, we cling to any semblance of community in which we might belong, drifting ever deeper into the labyrinth of “self-discovery.”
Picasso, who painted countless muses, remarked, “I do not seek, I find.” But in a contemporary age overwhelmed by information, innumerable “answers” surge towards us unbidden, as if insisting that we must seek them. What, then, are we truly able to find? And how true can any such answers be? Through the protean figure of “Who,” Fujiwara probes the layered structures and conditions that weave identity today, while questioning the very certainty of identity itself.
This exhibition marks Fujiwara’s first solo show at our gallery in six and a half years. “Who the Bær”, the series he has been developing since 2020, emerged during the pandemic as a “childlike, Dada-esque response to the increasingly nonsensical world of hyper-capitalist entertainment culture.” In the series, “Who,” a bear character with no fixed personality, gender, or identity, roams the fictional “Whoniverse” in search of “What am I?”
The exhibition brings together 13 new paintings in which Fujiwara reinterprets, from a contemporary perspective, the muses created by such masters as Picasso, Velázquez, Fragonard, and Modigliani. As the muse, “Who” sometimes teases or clashes with the original images, or attempts to escape from the canvas. They at times grow weary and disenchanted; at others, peer into a “mirror” only to panic at the monstrous reflection of their own.
Fujiwara is not merely revealing the power dynamics between artists and the depicted, but through “Who,” a figure who is simultaneously subject and object, he gestures toward a rebellion by the created against the creator, and invites us to reconsider the very possibility of asking “What am I?”
The spread of social media has connected us with others we would once never have encountered. It appears to promise a world more attuned to diversity, more willing to let go of preconceptions tied to identity. Yet obsession with images, combined with technology and social platforms, exerts complex pressures on us – giving rise to a backlash in which chaos, aversion, and “fake realities” proliferate. Seemingly more capable than ever of expressing our individuality, we nonetheless find ourselves entangled in a deluge of information. Beset by anxiety, we cling to any semblance of community in which we might belong, drifting ever deeper into the labyrinth of “self-discovery.”
Picasso, who painted countless muses, remarked, “I do not seek, I find.” But in a contemporary age overwhelmed by information, innumerable “answers” surge towards us unbidden, as if insisting that we must seek them. What, then, are we truly able to find? And how true can any such answers be? Through the protean figure of “Who,” Fujiwara probes the layered structures and conditions that weave identity today, while questioning the very certainty of identity itself.
Schedule | Jan 10 (Sat) 2026-Feb 14 (Sat) 2026 Opening Hours Information
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Venue | Taro Nasu http://www.taronasugallery.com/en/  | ||||
| Location | 4F Piramide Bldg., 6-6-9 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032 | ||||
| Access | 2 minute walk from exit 1b at Roppongi Station on the Hbiya or Toei Oedo line, 12 minute walk from exit 3 at Nogizaka Station on the Chiyoda line, 13 minute walk from exit 7 at Azabu-juban Station on the Namboku or Toei Oedo line. | ||||
| Phone | 03-5786-6900 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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