EXHIBITIONS
Facial Expression
Tokyo International Gallery presents a group exhibition
by Jiro Aiko, Momoko Yoshida, and Kota Miyazaki
“Facial Expression”
Tokyo International Gallery (Shinagawa, Tennoz) is pleased to present the group exhibition Facial Expression, featuring works by Jiro Aiko, Momoko Yoshida, and Kota Miyazaki, opening on Wednesday, September 10, 2025.This exhibition is held in conjunction with TENNOZ ART WEEK 2025, organized by Warehouse TERRADA, which coincides with the international art fair Tokyo Gendai.
＜Exhibition Overview＞
Facial Expression ：The Subtle Fluctuations of the Human Face through Portraiture
Since before the advent of language, humans have used facial expressions as a means of conveying emotion and engaging in communication.
In contemporary society, however, facial expressions have come to represent far more than simple emotional responses—they are now understood as complex phenomena shaped by social, cultural, psychological, and technological contexts.
This exhibition brings together three artists who explore the theme of fluctuation through the medium of portraiture. The subtle, layered emotions that reside within facial expressions can be fragile, fleeting, and above all, profoundly human. We invite you to experience the unique expressions portrayed by each artist, and to reflect on the depth and ambiguity that faces can convey.
ARTIST PROFILE
KOTA MIYAZAKI
After completing graduate studies at Nagoya University of the Arts, Kota Miyazaki has been based in his hometown of Aichi, where he continues to create and exhibit his work.
Around five years ago, he arrived at his current style—applying brushstrokes over already completed works—and has continued to develop it since.
He actively participates in art fairs and exhibitions both in Japan and abroad, and in recent years, he has also held solo shows at galleries.
Artist Statement
My work is completed by stroking the brush over the completed work.
The resulting bleeding and blurring of the paint looks different depending on the image of each motif, but I believe that it can be perceived as movement or the passage of time.
I hope that through my work, people will have the opportunity to take a new look at everyday things that they have not paid attention to before.
JIRO AIKO
After graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts with a major in Japanese Painting, Jiro Aiko has been actively working as a painter based in Tokyo.
He uses delicate materials such as pencil and sumi ink on washi paper to depict the fragility and vulnerability that lie within people.
The ink that gently traces the contours of faintly emerging portraits preserves the memory of fading existence, while the line running through the center of the expression emphasizes the ambiguity of the figures.
His major solo exhibitions include "The Thought That Someone Is Praying for You" (CLEAR GALLERY TOKYO, Tokyo, 2024), "A Pianissimo Armor" (TAKU SOMETANI GALLERY, Tokyo, 2023), and "fragments" (Ginza Tsutaya Books, Tokyo, 2022).
Artist Statement
My practice begins from a place of affirming qualities such as delicacy, fragility, vulnerability, fluctuation, and transience. The motifs I draw in pencil often have blurred, shaky, or astigmatic, unfocused expressions. This is not only a way of portraying fragility and changeability but also a way of maintaining a certain distance from capturing or fixing the subject into a definitive form.
Seeing is always wavering, unstable, and incomplete. The pencil, with its low ability to adhere permanently to the paper, reflects this and is intended to depict a presence akin to a precarious memory.
There were times when I suppressed my own sensitivity and vulnerability, tried to have firm opinions, and move forward without hesitation—only to feel a sense of discomfort. At those moments, what I was wearing must have been something like a “metal armor.” While it protected me, it also made it harder to connect with the sensitivity of others.
By shutting the lid on my own fragility, I also became less able to recognize the warmth of others, sometimes even becoming unconsciously aggressive. That is why I wish, as much as possible, to let go of that metallic armor, even if I am at times surprised by how easily I can break.
The black sumi ink lines carry multiple roles.
They act like an adhesive, anchoring the motif in place, but at the same time, they also possess the rigidity and tension of restraints or armor. The lines do not strictly follow the contours of the motif but instead provide subtle support without clearly defining its shape.
There is a conflict in my work between a longing for strength and hesitation toward losing sensitivity in the pursuit of it. These lines seem to have been drawn for protection, yet they also express a discomfort with having armor. This ambivalence is what I try to capture to create a subtle sense of fluctuation and tension on the surface of the work.
MOMOKO YOSHIDA
Born in Hyogo in 1989, currently based in Chiba, Japan.
She completed her M.F.A. in Painting at Kyoto City University of Arts.
Her work begins with a sensation that, as she imagines a parallel world projecting desire and fetishism, her own physical presence gradually becomes tenuous—eventually disappearing.
Inspired by contemporary youth culture, she paints portraits of young people that often reveal the ambiguous and fluid presence drifting between nationality and gender, the real and virtual, the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional.
Recent solo exhibitions include (30p) Water soup (ARTDYNE, Tokyo, 2024) and hemi hemi・Typin’, Set 4 “Waiting on your car.” (Ritsuki Fujisaki Gallery, Tokyo, 2024).
Selected group exhibitions include Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025 (Semba Excel Building, Osaka), and ATAMI ART GRANT 2024 (Atami City, Shizuoka).
Artist Statement
I imagine a world that resembles a parallel reality, and paint scenes where nostalgia for the past intersects with curiosity about the future.
What appears in these scenes, in tandem with the disappearance of the self, are figures of young people onto whom I project my own admiration, desires, and fetishes—manifested in a different world.
These characters, depicted as unknown symbols that contain the future, are sometimes freed from fixed identity—transcending nationality, gender, reality and virtuality, the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional.
I am interested in idealized memories of the past and multi-layered worldviews. Through painting, I explore narrative structures that deepen in a nested form and attempt to reinterpret my own life as a new kind of fiction.
My creative process begins with building 3D models of characters and backgrounds based on images. I film them, extract still frames, and use these as drafts for my paintings.
This multi-step transformation is, for me, a method of intentionally distancing from the real world, and delving into the depths of the imaginary to explore my own self.
Although my work draws inspiration from youth culture—such as music, fashion, games, and internet culture—I also aim to evoke themes connected to the expansion of identity and spirituality in the age of information.
As social media and the metaverse free people from the constraints of the real world and open up new forms of self-expression, our existence is becoming increasingly complex.
Within this context, I see my work as a form of “contemporary portraiture,” offering a new sense of reality.
OVERVIEW
- TITLE
- Facial Expression
- DATE
- September 10 (Wed) – October 18 (Sat), 2025
- CLOSED
- Mondays and Tuesdays / Wednesdays by appointment only (except for opening day, September 10) Open on Monday, September 15 (public holiday)
- Opening Reception
In celebration of the exhibition opening, a reception will be held in conjunction with the VIP Preview of TENNOZ ART WEEK 2025.
● Date : Wednesday, September 10, 2025
● Time : 18:00–21:00
● Venue : Tokyo International Gallery
● Admission : Free / No reservation required- VENUE
- Tokyo International Gallery
- ADDRESS
Tokyo International Gallery
TERRADA ART COMPLEX II 2F,1-32-8 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, JapanSince July 2024, Tokyo International Gallery has been hosting exhibitions on the 3rd floor of TERRADA ART COMPLEX II.
We are pleased to inform you that from September 2025, we will be returning to our ORIGINAL SPACE on the 2nd floor of the same building.
We sincerely thank you for your continued understanding and support.
We will continue our efforts to present exhibitions that fully showcase the charm of our artists and their works.
We look forward to welcoming you to the gallery once again.- Participation in "TENNOZ ART WEEK 2025"
This exhibition is part of TENNOZ ART WEEK 2025, organized by Warehouse TERRADA, which takes place alongside the international art fair Tokyo Gendai in September 2025.Visitors can also enjoy the group exhibition “Tennoz Contemporary”, jointly presented by galleries located within Japan’s largest gallery complex, TERRADA ART COMPLEX, as well as partner galleries from Japan and abroad.
● Dates : September 11 (Thu) – 15 (Sun), 2025
● VIP Preview : September 10 (Wed), 18:00–21:00
● Admission : Free / No reservation required
● Website : https://taw.warehouseofart.org