ShugoArts Show

Born in Kanagawa, Japan, in 1980. Currently lives and works in Tokyo. Chiba’s paintings are created through a process in which the artist actively engages with the objects of his choice as much as necessary; he extracts images from his surroundings and previous life events and reconstructs them on canvas while utilizing his handmade motifs. With his sophisticated skill set, Chiba can differentiate textures of various motifs in his paintings where he establishes a complex world combining pseudo-reality, pure artificiality and reality. While sincerely imprinting copious achievements of paintings of all times and places on his mind, the artist boldly disturbs the existing structure of contemporary art with his preferred medium, painting.

Selected exhibitions: Sideward Exhibition, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2023; Masaya Chiba Exhibition, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, 2021; Assembridge NAGOYA, Former Minato Dormitory of Nagoya customs, Nagoya, 2019; Painting and …, Gallery αM, Tokyo, 2018; Perry Rhodan and my life, Art Center Ongoing, Tokyo, 2018; MAM Collection 006: Materials and Boundaries – Handiwirman Saputra + Chiba Masaya, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2017; What to Do With Memories by Utilizing Things Such as Indirect Lighting in Light Box Style, Yatsuzaki Halo, Feeling of Wanting to Kiss, Family Story, Sagamihara Stone Burger, Forget Medusa, and Element 50m Ahead, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2017; Discordant Harmony, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, 2015 (Travelled to Seoul and Taipei); Roppongi Crossing 2013: OUT OF DOUBT, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2013

Masato Kobayashi was born in Tokyo in 1957. He was the Japanese representative of the 1996 São Paulo Bienniale. In 1997, invited by Jan Hoet, he traveled to Europe, and continued to create works in various locations while based in Ghent, Belgium. Kobayashi returned to Japan in 2006 and began working based in Tomonoura, Fukuyama City, Hiroshima. He was also a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts from 2017 to 2023. He has developed a unique technique of applying color by rubbing it into the canvas while supporting the fabric with one hand, simultaneously stretching it over the wooden frame to bring the painting to life and “aiming for a painting that does not lose its essence by merely existing.” Kobayashi has prolifically produced paintings that possess a form and unique brightness that can only emerge from that specific situation.

Selected solo exhibitions: “About Freedom”, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2023; “Family of this Planet”, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2021; “Artist and the Model”, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2019; “ART TODAY 2012”, Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Nagano, 2012; “MASATO KOBAYASHI – The Paint of the Planet”, Nariwa Museum, Okayama, 2009; “Starry Paint, stars of outer space by pure painting”, Tensta Konsthall, Spanga, Sweden, 2004; “A Son of Painting Masato Kobayashi”, S.M.A.K., Ghent, 2001; “KOBAYASHI Masato”, The Miyagi Museum of Art, 2000.

Publications: Masato Kobayashi MK, HeHe, 2024; The autobiographical novel trilogy, Paint of this Planet—Under the tree at Hitotsubashi University, ART DIVER, 2018; Paint of this Planet—Duifhuisstraat 52, ART DIVER, 2020

Selected Public Collections: Iwaki City Art Museum (Iwaki, Japan). The Miyagi Museum of Art (Sendai, Japan). The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan). The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan). Utsunomiya Museum of Art (Utsunomiya, Japan). S.M.A.K. The Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Ghent, Belgium). The Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum (Shizuoka, Japan)

Born in 1987 in Hokkaido and currently residing in Yamagata, Japan. Aki Kondo continues to depict hope and compassion for all forms of life through bold colors and dynamic brushstrokes. For Kondo, who believes that “to paint is to live,” the act of creation is both a process of envisioning the world she wishes to see and a means of self-recognition through painting. Her artistic expression extends beyond canvases and panels, freely expanding into three-dimensional objects, walls, ceilings, and entire spaces. Additionally, Kondo has demonstrated her talent in various artistic endeavors, including writing, directing, and producing the short film HIKARI, which seamlessly blends approximately 14,000 oil-painted animation frames with live-action footage.

Selected exhibitions: Aki Kondo: What I Saw, When I Tore Myself Open, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, 2025; I Wanted to See You, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2023; Aichi Triennale 2022, Aichi, 2022; Stars, Sparkling, Yamagata Museum of Art, Yamagata, 2021; The Happiness that Exists Here, ShugoArts/ Phillips Tokyo/ Contemporary Art Foundation, Tokyo, 2021; Takamatsu Art Museum Collection + Body and Movement, Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa, 2020; Flowers in the Heart, ShugoArts Online Show, Tokyo, 2020; Today Waiting for That Day and Tomorrow, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2018; Paintings Here And Now, Fuchu Art Museum, Tokyo, 2018; HIKARI, Daiwa Foundation Japan House, London, 2016; HIKARI, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2015; THE ECOLOGY OF AKI KONDO, JIKKA, Tokyo, 2013; PHANTOMS OF ASIA: Contemporary Awakens the Past, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, 2012. VOCA 2022 Honorable Mention Award, 2022.

Born in Hong Kong in 1978. Currently based in Taipei, Lee has taken part in residency programs all over the world, including the US, Europe and Asia. In his art practice, Lee utilizes various media such as projector light, videos, sounds, words and found objects, and his artworks represent the artist’s desire to continuously blaze a trail for new expressions of painting. Having been born and raised in Hong Kong, a city that has been susceptible to political turbulence, Lee has been conscious of the current socio-political climate. He incorporates intricate expressions to provide an opportunity for the viewers to reconsider their relationships with society and others, and the nature of his artwork is what makes his exhibition spaces site-specific, reflecting the ambience and emotions of each location.

Selected solo exhibitions: A blank stare like a gasp, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2023; Lovers on the Beach, West Den Haag, Den Haag, 2021-2022; (Screenshot), ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2020; Resonance of a sad smile, Art Sonje Center, Seoul, 2019; ‘We used to be more sensitive.’, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2018; The Enormous Space, OCAT, Shenzhen, China, 2018; Not untitled, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2017; A small sound in your head, S.M.A.K, Ghent, 2016; Hold your breath, dance slowly, The Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, USA, 2016; The voice behind me, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, 2015; ʻYou (you).ʼ, the 55th Venice Biennale, 2013.

Born in 1989 in Venice, Italy, Anju Michele currently lives in Kyoto, Japan. Using silver and gold evaporated aluminum paper, a material used in Nishijin textiles, as a support, he creates paintings that embody the changing light. Expressed in light and organic forms that are difficult to describe, his practice “begins with the gesture,” showing us that there is a world that is different from the reality we usually see. And Anju’s body, which makes it difficult for him to hear outside sounds, fosters a rich sensory experience and reveals free and fearless brushwork.

Selected exhibitions: Circular Skies, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2024; Imaginarium, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2020; VOCA The Vision of Contemporary Art 2020, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, 2020; Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama Museum of Art , Kanagawa, 2014; About Freedom, TRAUMARIS, Tokyo, 2011; Kagemi of love, HIGURE 17-15cas, Tokyo, 2009; Infanzia, Cube gallery, Venice, 2005

Born in Fukuoka, Japan in 1982, Takabatake currently lives in Tokyo. In 2015, she participated in an artist residency at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Connecticut in order to conduct research on Anni Albers. Through the physical phenomena of her materials, Takabatake has developed two-dimensional painting into an existence with a physical structure. While experiencing firsthand the magnitude of the world through the Lascaux cave murals and the Nazca terrestrial paintings, Takabatake creates her works through dialogue with materials, which encompass physical spaces that cannot be realized solely by painting images.

Solo exhibitions: LINE(N), ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2024; CAVE, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2022; MARS, Gana Art Nineone, Seoul, 2022; MARS, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2020; VENUS, Gana Art Hannam, Seoul, 2019; Fountain, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2018; Bathing, ShugoArts Weekend Gallery, Tokyo, 2016; Project N 58 Yoriko Takabatake, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, 2014.
Selected group exhibitions: ABSTRACTION: The Genesis and Evolution of Abstract Painting Cézanne, Fauvism, Cubism and on to Today, Artizon Museum, Tokyo, 2023; FUJI TEXTILE WEEK 2021, Fujiyoshida City, Yamanashi, Japan, 2021; TRICK-DIMENSION, TOKYO FRONT LINE, Tokyo, 2013; Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2013, Tokyo, 2013; DANDANS at No Man’s Land, former French Embassy, Tokyo, 2010. Public collection: Artizon Museum, Tokyo.