Tomio Koyama Gallery Kyobashi is pleased to present In the depth of things, an exhibition of new works by Kishio Suga. This marks Suga’s 11th consecutive exhibition and his 18th solo exhibition at our gallery since 2006.

Kishio Suga (b. 1944) is known as one of the leading artists of the “Mono-ha” movement from the 1960s and 1970s, and continues to win international acclaim to this day. He held solo exhibitions at the He Art Museum (China) in 2024 and at Dia Beacon (New York, USA, scheduled to run for several years) and the Cobra Museum of Modern Art (Netherlands) in 2025, demonstrating the ever-expanding scope of his activities both in Japan and abroad. Even now, after a long career, the fresh body of work he creates with a creative energy that remains undiminished continues to captivate a wide audience.

In addition, the exhibition catalog for this year, published annually, will feature a new essay by Yasuo Kobayashi. This exhibition offers a valuable opportunity to engage with both the enduring philosophy that underlies Suga’s practice as well as his current perspective.

Using familiar materials such as wood, stone, metal, and rope, Suga’s works establish relationships between “things” (mono), sites, and people through a series of subtle operations and arrangements, challenging our perception and spatial awareness in a quiet yet powerful way.

What is distinctive about Suga’s approach is how he perceives “things” not merely as materials, but also as entities that possess their own inherent existence. How does one “see” the depths of this invisible existence? And how might one go about opening up and presenting a space that befits it? This is the process that Suga has positioned at the very core of his artistic practice.

“From the inside out, from the outside in, the sense of physicality fades away. What I want to present are works that allow us to recognize that sense of physicality, even as it is prevented from disappearing.”

This perspective challenges our existing perceptions and values, creating new situations in which things resonate with other things, people, and sites. Suga’s artistic practice, which represents a consistent exploration of such issues over more than half a century, has garnered attention as a philosophical mode of expression that reexamines our relationship with the world.

Major exhibitions to date include Kishio Suga (Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art and other venues, 1997), Suga Kishio: stance (Yokohama Museum of Art, 1999), Uncertain void: installation by Kishio Suga (Iwate Museum of Art, 2005), Situated latency (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2015), and solo exhibitions at Pirelli Hangar Bicocca and Dia Chelsea in 2016. In 2017, he participated in the 57th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.