nca | nichido contemporary art

Date: 9.18 (thu.) – 10.25 (sat.), 2025
Gallery hours: Tue. – Sat. 11:00 – 19:00 (Closed on Mon., Sun., and National Holidays)
Opening reception: 9.18 (thu.) 17:00 – 19:00

nca | nichido contemporary art is pleased to present artist Shinya Imanishi’s new solo show Seeing the Unseen.
While drawing on Eastern philosophy, Western pictorial traditions, and Japanese art, Imanishi investigates the relation between material and image, perspective and distance, trying to give visibility to the ambiguity and uncertainty of those things we deem familiar. First, Imanishi applies several, thick layers of oil paint to the canvas, then, through a vigorous touch, he leaves visible brushstrokes on the painted surface and finally scoops out the paint as he goes. This is the set of actions that breathe life into Imanishi’s works. The smallest change in our perspective or stance brings to light new visual possibilities showing us how our own existence and reality are bursting with changes, ever-so organic and unpredictable.
The exhibition features Imanishi’s new painting series Ties, focusing on small-scale pieces only, and a selection of three-dimensional works which represent the artist’s new artistic endeavor.

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We take pictures with our phones using every possible means to capture the present. Every day, we find ourselves trying to hold on to “that time” or “that moment”. And I can’t help but wonder: how do we really experience these little fragments representing “that something” that happened there and then? Is it about the external perception of what we see or does it have something to do with what it hides inside, out of sight, that we can only try to picture in our minds? Are we capable of seeking evidence that, going further beyond the simple act of “seeing”, bears testament to those very fleeting moments?

Shinya Imanishi’s artistic practice has been so far characterized by a unique process where the artist applies thick layers of oil paint which he, then, proceeds to partially remove. The repetition of these two actions, “applying” and “removing”, creates a structure where both materiality and physicality can be traced on the canvas through the different layers. Here, what we see on the surface and the layers hidden beneath it coexist together. It is a structure tinged with the ambiguity that lies between the chronological aspect of the physical act of layering itself and the visually two-dimensional surface. Imanishi’s recent investigation has been indeed focused on ephemeral subjects – ruins, lighting, flames, paper crackers -, yet this does not necessarily translate into simple representations of such motifs. A good example is provided by the series Holiday cracker where the paintings show traces left by the “explosion” of an actual cracker after being pulled open directly on the canvas, making the act itself part of the painting.
At the core of Imanishi’s work lies his purpose which is to represent the tension existing between visible and invisible, clear and ambiguous. And our perception is constantly challenged as we discover new shapes and light effects revealed by the painted surface each time we change our stance. Furthermore, it also pushes us to rethink the experience of “seeing”, made of layered memories, physicality and time, which stretches beyond mere, visually-pleasing representations.

The exhibition takes a different direction from Imanishi’s usual approach featuring new experiments within the context of his artistic practice. The large-scale paintings that have long dominated his production make room this time for small-scale canvases. The surface that comes alive through the combination of lines and grooves, resulting from the scraping off of the thick layer of paint, shows well enough that Imanishi’s concept of theoretical physicality is not affected by scale.

For instance, for Imanishi, whose work has always walked the line between two dimensional and three-dimensional, the resin-coated artworks contained inside cylinders and rectangular aluminum cases merge these two expressive domains. If we look at any given container, whether a cup or a case, we instantly and naturally feel able to measure the quantity of what they could potentially contain. However, this does not entail some innate skill we are born with; it is something that comes from our everyday life experience, from all the cups we have filled, spilt and emptied, a sort of inertial force that works from within us. While at first glance, these works appear as if filled by some voluminous substance, it is actually a painted canvas that we are looking at, stretched as to fit the internal shape of the different containers. Imanishi looks at these works as both paintings and sculptures. They challenge that inertial force of ours forcing us to readjust our way of looking. Furthermore, at the same time, that attitude of trying to rethink a painting as something voluminous, or, yet, a sculpture as something that could be drawn, brings us back to themes that have been central to Imanishi’s artistic practice so far.
The exhibition also features a few works which are hanging from the ceiling, shaped as if been compressed into some sort of net. If we peek through the meshes, we realize that they are actually empty. Yet, the sack-like net is shaped as if it used to contain something and has eventually retained that very same shape. The net, looking firm as a sculpture, reveals the shape of a properly functioning sack but it also seems to be simultaneously hinting to the presence of “what once used to be there”. In fact, normally, a net, soft and void of any content, would deflate when emptied.
However, as if to pin down the outline of that presence that was once contained, the work in question provides a visual representation of that very moment. Going beyond the classical expressions of sculpture, we can also interpret this as an attempt to give shape to the existence of that very “moment”. And that evokes, here and now, things from the past as that “moment” represents a deviation from the framework of time, transcending experiences in the form of memories and recollections. Everything, once given shape, becomes part of the present, “something that is happening right now”. And it is fair to say that Imanishi is sharing with us what really “seeing” means to him today.

Yuji OSHITA (Associate Curator, Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka)

Sinya Imanishi
2015 Art Major Painting Field, Kyoto University of Art and Design
Main solo exhibitions: “Twinkles/ Out of focus”, nca | nichido contemporary art, Tokyo (2024), “GLIMMERING”, THE BRIDGE, Osaka, (2023), “caw wac caw”, nca | nichido contemporary art, Tokyo (2022), “YOUKAN and CREAM!”, Bijuu gallery space, Kyoto (2021) “Light Exposed”, galerie nichido Taipei, Taipei (2020), “Wind, Rain, and your Words”, Art Delight、Seoul (2018), “ISANATORI”, nca | nichido contemporary art, Tokyo (2017)
Main group exhibitions: ”Kansai Voices Vol.2”, nca | nichido contemporary art, Tokyo (2023), “Young Okazaki vol.2”, MtK Contemporary Art, Kyoto (2022), “Up_01”, Ginza Tsutaya GINZA ATRIUM, Tokyo (2021), "Kansai Voices - A journey through painting today-", nca | nichido contemporary art, Tokyo (2020), " Shell Art Award Exhibition", The National Art Center Tokyo, Tokyo (2020), " Kyoto Art Tomorrow 2019 - Selected Up-and-coming Artists Exhibition”, The Museum of Kyoto, Kyoto (2019), "untamed vol.1", COHJU contemporary art, Kyoto (2019), " Island with ONI”, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo (2019), Japan-Taiwan Cultural Exchange Exhibition Art Collection Exhibition, Warehouse Terrada, Tokyo (2017), ”echo of the echoes”, Seibu Shibuya, Tokyo (2017), “Gunma Biennale for Young Artists 2017”, Museum of Modern Art Gunma, Gunma (2017), "Stars popping out of Chaos 2015”, Spiral Garden, Tokyo (2015), “Sensing body” nca | nichido contemporary art, Tokyo (2015), "3331 Art Fair 2015 - Various Collectors’ Prizes - ", 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo (2015), Awards – Scholarships: Shell Art Award 2020, Grand Prix (2020), The 31st Holbein Scholarship (2015), 3331 Art Fair 2015 ‒Various Collectors' Prizes‒ Tanaka Hideo Award and Komatsu Junya Award (2015), Award at the Kyoto University of Art and Design completion Exhibition (2015)