I wonder when I went to that place, I can’t quite remember clearly.
I search for the photos of that place in my phone’s saved pictures.
Those recorded dates on the screen don’t match my sense of time.
Memory doesn’t hold onto dates.
It dissolves time and space, blending them together.
Gently wavering, the forgotten and vanished begin to reveal themselves.
Naofumi MARUYAMA, 3 March 2025
About Exhibition
Naofumi Maruyama begins painting by placing a cotton cloth, saturated with water, on the floor. Utilizing the effect of pigments spreading and seeping into the fabric through the water, he has created numerous landscapes where the boundaries of objects dissolve ambiguously. Unlike applying layers of paint onto a firm and solid support, his process involves gradually generating colors and forms on a damp surface, much like a wetland. This approach resonates with the reality of our own existence, as we stand and live on unstable, physically shifting ground.
During his process of art-making while utilizing water as a medium, Maruyama contemplates that “everything is in flux.” We are accustomed to capturing the elusive flow of the world by representing it through diagrams and words in order to rationally understand phenomena. However, the understanding gained through such analysis does not necessarily explain the irrational events or the complex emotions that shape our individual lives.
Naofumi MARUYAMA, Kicking Water (continues to), 2025, acrylic on cotton, 162.3x112cm
“I believe that flow is inherently something that cannot be visualized. If we want to visualize it with time, it divides and stops the flow using dates and days of the week. I sometimes feel a sense of discomfort with this. Memories fade and disappear. Then, they are rearranged and reborn as something new. I want to create my art with an awareness of this kind of flow.”
Like stars flickering in the vast expanse of time and space, our memories of life exist and form meaning. Naofumi Maruyama’s wavering art may serve as a place where these fragments gradually come together. In this exhibition, we will present over six new works of Maruyama, including a large-scale piece measuring 3.6 meters, inspired by waterside nature. Additionally, Maruyama’s artist book brackish water, which compiles photographs he captures in daily life, has recently been published. This accordion-style book is designed not only to be enjoyed by flipping through the pages but also to be unfolded and viewed three-dimensionally. Limited to six copies, each features a unique, specially crafted case. We hope you will enjoy the exhibition.
ShugoArts, March 2025
Naofumi MARUYAMA, Kicking Water (being called), 2025, acrylic on cotton, 162.3x112cm
Information
19 April – 14 June 2025 *The exhibition has been extended beyond the originally scheduled dates.
ShugoArts
11am ‒ 6pm, Closed on Sun, Mon and Public Holidays
19 April, 3pm – 6pm
ShugoArts
Special thanks to Okashimaru.
On the opening day of the exhibition, we will offer special confections by Okashimaru, creating a moment where art and cuisine intersect. The connection between Naofumi Maruyama and Sayoko Sugiyama of Okashimaru began in the autumn two years ago. At IDOCHA, an event hosted in Kyoto by Koji Itakura, Sugiyama presented confections titled Tsuki no Wa (Moon Ring) and Ukigumo (Drifting Clouds), inspired by Maruyamaʼs new works at the time. This encounter became a new artistic revelation for Maruyama as well. For this exhibition, new confections have been specially created, inspired by Maruyamaʼs latest works. We invite you to savor these exquisite creations.
Okashimaru, Sayoko Sugiyama
Born in 1983 in Mie Prefecture, Sugiyama is currently based in Kyoto. From 2006, she was active for ten years as part of the wagashi (traditional Japanese confectionery) unit Nikka. In 2014, she founded Okashimaru, where she continues to create and sell wagashi. Feeling the expressive potential in the ephemeral nature of food, she studied wagashi in Kyoto. She views the act of eating as an experience
and strives to create confections that capture fleeting moments, leaving a lasting impression. In 2024, she published Okashimaru no Kashi through torch press.
Naofumi Maruyama
Kaoru Hongo (switch point)
Azusa Honma (Imaginary Bookbinder)
19 April 2025
28 x 21.5 x 3.4 cm
Limited edition of 6 books
Naofumi Maruyama’s artist book BRACKISH WATER, which compiles photographs he captures in daily life, will be published.
Books are available at ShugoArts. Please feel free to ask the gallery staff or contact us at: info@shugoarts.comfor further information.
Naofumi MARUYAMA Related Exhibitions
Born in Niigata, Japan in 1964. Maruyama currently lives and works in Tokyo. He has become one of the most important painters in Japan since the 1990s. The artist incorporates the stain technique, a painting technique using cotton cloths soaked with water and acrylics, in order to depict his motifs which are so soft that they melt with time and place. His paintings are figurative yet abstract, ushering the viewers to a plateau where there is no boundary between a subject and an object; in other words, the viewers become part of his paintings. Maruyama’s painting practice is bolstered by his diligent, rational and sincere research and practice of “the possibility of the spaces that exist only inside paintings.” He has been a Professor in the Painting Department at the Musashino Art University since 2000. Maruyama received The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technologyʼs Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists in 2008.
Selected exhibitions: HIRAKU Project Vol.14 Naofumi Maruyama Kicking the Water: Sengokuhara, Pola Museum of Art, Kanagawa, 2023; Kicking the Water, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2022; Lascaux and Weather, ShugoArts,Tokyo, 2018; FLOWING, Wooson Gallery, Daegu, 2017; GROUND2: Talking About Paintings, Talking About Seeing, Musashino Art University Museum & Library, Tokyo, 2016; Niigata Creations ‒ Museum in Motion, Niigata City Art Museum, Niigata, 2014; Floating Boat, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, 2011; Transparent Footsteps, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2010; the front in the back, Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2008; Portrait Session, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, 2007; The Elegance of Silence: Contemporary Art from East Asia, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2005; HAPPINESS: A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR ART + LIFE, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2003; Taipei Biennial: Great Theatre of the World, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2002; MOT Annual 1999: Modest Radicalism, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 1999; 8th Triennale-India, Lalit Kala Akademi, National Academy of Art, New Delhi, 1994; Solo at Satani Gallery Tokyo, 1992
