EXHIBI­TIONS

NATSUKO TANIHARA

Natsuko Tanihara carries forward the lineage of “dark paintings” in Japan’s modern art history. Tanihara is known for her oil-on-velvet paintings depicting dreamlike visions of the dark corners of her own upbringing, humans being overpowered by lower life-forms, senseless violence, and the end of the world. She renders these scenes in vivid color through obsessively detailed brushstrokes, while the velvet support absorbs light to produce a jet-black ground that profoundly underpins her mysterious world. Tanihara has also expanded her practice to making stage designs for bunraku puppet theater and the Edo string puppet theater. This exhibition presents a comprehensive overview of her concept artwork for the bunraku production Nakanoshima Bunraku, for which she served as art director in 2024 and 2025.

MEM

MEM (Multiply Encoded Messages) was founded in Osaka in 1997 and moved to Tokyo in 2010. The gallery serves as an intersectional zone between artists and the public. It is a collaborative arena where experimental projects and artworks are conceived and exhibited, and where the multiplication of encoded messages can inspire new thinking.

Initially, MEM represented established artists who emerged in the 1980s in the Kansai region and were working in new media, such as video and photography, including Tomoaki Ishihara, Yoshio Kitayama, Chie Matsui, Kimiyo Mishima, and Yasumasa Morimura. Upon relocating to Tokyo, the gallery extended its program to add emerging artists, such as Ayano Sudo and Natsuko Tanihara. It also strengthened its focus on photography by organizing exhibitions for Antoine d'Agata, Ken Kitano, Katsumi Omori, and other contemporary photographers.