ARTIST

Towa Takaya

She was born in Tokyo in 1992 and is based there. Centering her practice on the exploration of optical phenomena and materials, she develops pictorial expression as phenomena arising in light, matter, and space. Using cosmetic ingredients, earth, minerals, and CO2-derived materials, she creates visual experiences in which the physical properties of materials and the memories of the land are transformed through light, viewpoint, and environment.
Since 2022, she has been engaged in collaborative research with Shiseido MIRAI Technology Institute. Her major solo exhibitions include Or, Like I'm Not Myself (DESIGN FESTA GALLERY, 2014), It calls: shades of innocence (Lurf Gallery, 2024), Phenomena of the infinite (Ginza Mitsukoshi Gallery, 2025), Contours of the Unseen (Kamakura Gallery, 2025), and re: materiality (hakari contemporary, 2025). She has also participated in art fairs in Japan and abroad, including ART FAIR TOKYO, Tokyo Gendai, and the Japan Annual-International Art Festival (Expo 2025).
2009 Selected, the 83rd Kokuten Exhibition (The National Art Center, Tokyo)

Official Website:https://towatakaya.com/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/towatakaya

Collaboration with Companies and Research Institutes
She has been engaged in collaborative research with Shiseido MIRAI Technology Institute since 2022, developing
pictorial expressions that apply the optical properties of cosmetic ingredients, and presenting the research exhibition
Inversing Pictorial Space using Cosmetic Ingredients – A Collaborative Study on Oil Paintings at Shiseido Global
Innovation Center (S/PARK). She is also researching and creating new environmental art expressions using CO2-derived
polymer. In her new series, Morphology of Breath, she visualizes the circulation between humans and the environment as
the optical behavior of materials.
In 2025, in collaboration with MINASE, a Japanese watch brand, she created the “Yūsai” watch dial, whose colors shift
depending on viewing angle and ambient light.
She continues to research and create environmental art that visualizes the circulation between humans and the
environment, using environmentally considerate materials such as CO2-derived polymer and earth indigenous to specific
regions of Japan, sourced through artist-in-residence programs in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, and Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture.

＝Artist Statement＝
I understand painting not as an expression of a fixed image, but as a site where perception is generated within the
relationships among light, material, body, and environment. Rather than presenting a single image, my works constantly
shift in appearance depending on perspective, distance, and states of light, emerging as a different phenomenon each
time. Particles interfere with light, and images keep wavering without being fixed. There, the very act of “seeing” is
quietly called into question.
Recently, I have been creating works by superimposing materials with specific optical properties—such as polarizing
pearl and metal—with materials bearing the time of the land, such as earth and sand collected in Noto, ash from Suzu
ware, and minerals. The surface undergoes subtle changes in response to humidity and light; the image dissolves up close
and reconstitutes itself at a distance. My interest is not in a structure in which “the subject recognizes and represents the
world,” but in quietly tuning the conditions under which the world appears and repositioning the subject within the
environment.
My works exist not to present a single answer but to serve as a site where the relationship between humans and the world
remains open and unsettled. I am exploring the new potential to renew perception itself, moving beyond a fixed vision.

BIOGRAPHY

1992: Born in Tokyo
2011-2012: Foundation Diploma for Art and Design, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of
the Arts London
2012-2015: BA (Hons), Fine Art, Goldsmith College, University of London
2017-2019: Cooperative Research Fellow, Center for Spatial Information Science at the University of Tokyo

EXHIBITIONS

2023: 【Solo】JOY AFTER ALL (Lurf Gallery, Tokyo)
2023: 【Solo】Inversing Pictorial Space using Cosmetic Ingredients
– A Collaborative Study on Oil Paintings (Shiseido Global Innovation Center, Kanagawa)
2024: 【Solo】It calls: shades of innocence (Lurf Gallery, Tokyo)
2025: 【Solo】Phenomena of the infinite (Ginza Mitsukoshi Gallery, Tokyo)
2025: 【Solo】Until that particle comes and eventually returns to the universe. (Lurf Gallery, Tokyo)
2025: 【Solo】Being and transfiguration beyond nothingness (ASTER Curator Museum, Ishikawa)
2025: 【Solo】Re: Materiality (hakari contemporary, Kyoto)
2025: 【Solo】Contours of the Unseen (Kamakura Gallery, Kanagawa)
2026: 【Solo】SAKURADOKI (Hankyu MEN’S Art Gallery, Osaka)
2026: 【Solo】Within Transience (Ginza Mitsukoshi, Tokyo)
2016: 【Group】On the Threshold II: Formal Presence (Oriental Museum, Durham, UK)
2022: 【Group】diverse paintings (Seibu Shibuya, Tokyo)
2023: 【Group】Chroma Distance (POLA MUSEUM ANNEX, Tokyo)
2024: 【Group】Redcar Summer Exhibition 2024 (Redcar Contemporary Art Gallery, Redcar, UK)
2024: 【Group】Summer 2024 (Kamakura Gallery, Kanagawa)
2026: 【Group】Winter 2026 (Kamakura Gallery, Kanagawa)

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University and numerous corporate collections

OTHER

2019: Art Fair Tokyo 2019 (Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo)
2022-: Collaborative research with Shiseido MIRAI Technology Institute(research on optical expression by cosmetic ingredients)
2023: Research exhibition with Shiseido MIRAI Technology Institute, Inversing Pictorial Space using Cosmetic Ingredients – A Collaborative Study on Oil Paintings (Yokohama S/PARK, Kanagawa)
2024: Tokyo Gendai (PACIFICO Yokohama, Kanagawa)
2024: Kiaf SEOUL (COEX, Seoul)
2024: Art Fair Beppu 2024 (Beppu International Tourist Port, Oita)
2024: U-35 in the 2nd Japan Annual-International Art Festival (Sennyu-ji Temple Shariden, Kyoto)
2024: Exhibition of Kashinfu under the curation of Art Place Inc. (a certain government office meeting room)
2025: Takeo Yamawaki and Towa Takaya, “Classification of Painting Techniques across Painting Types,” The Journal of Society for Art and Science
2025: Art Fair Tokyo 2025 (Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo)
2025: Transience and Infinite in the 3rd Japan Annual-International Art Festival (Expo 2025, Osaka)
2025: Tokyo Gendai (PACIFICO Yokohama, Kanagawa)
2025: Art Fair Beppu 2025 (B-Con Plaza, Oita)
2026: Cover artwork for New Selected Works: Modern Japanese Language [Shin-seisen: Gendai no Kokugo] and New Selected Works: Language and Culture [Shin-seisen: Gengo-bunka] (Meiji-shoin, high school Japanese language textbooks)