GALLERY ROOM・A, a commercial gallery operated by the art communication platform ArtSticker, will host "What Carries," a solo exhibition by Ayumi Okita (沖田愛有美), from November 21 (Saturday) to December 20 (Sunday), 2026.
Works in the exhibition will be sold exclusively through ArtSticker. All sales are on a first-come, first-served basis, and orders will be accepted from 8:00 AM on November 21, 2026 (Saturday). Those who would like a price list before the exhibition opens can request one through the inquiry form.
About the Exhibition
Okita creates paintings using urushi lacquer as a medium. Urushi is the sap of the urushi tree, a natural material that cannot be bent to human will, and Okita sees it as a "mediator" connecting people, nature, and the world. The way its color develops and dries differs with temperature, humidity, and season, and its appearance changes little by little over time. Facing these characteristics, Okita treats the dialogue between the artist's own handwork and the response of the material as a kind of collaboration, and brings it into the works.
The exhibition title "What Carries" suggests existences that travel through the world, like water, birds, and wind, carrying and bringing something. For Okita, making art is a process of listening closely to the responses of such mediators in the place where the world and we meet. Urushi answers the artist's every stroke with changes beyond expectation, and even after a work is finished, the painted surface gradually becomes more transparent, bringing the colors and images hidden within to the surface. This transition makes it seem as though the work itself is a living thing, breathing together with the world and deepening its expression over time.
In the present age, when human activity and the natural environment are inseparably intertwined, Okita's works quietly turn our attention to non-human beings we rarely notice, and to the invisible breath that circulates through the world.
Visitors can experience at the gallery the world of Ayumi Okita, depicted through urushi as a mediator.
Exhibition Statement
In the artist's own words:
River water, obeying gravity, carried everything to the sea. Birds traveled back and forth between sky and earth, announcing morning and night. The breath of plants stirred the world.
I make my works using urushi as a medium. Urushi is the sap of the urushi tree, something like blood flowing from a wound for the tree. As a plant, the urushi tree is tapped by human hands and refined to become the material "urushi." Yet strangely, urushi has not become a material that humans can handle as they please. Its color development, its drying, and the scent that rises from it all change with the day's temperature and humidity, and with the season. That urushi hardens is a remnant of the tree's original function of closing a wound and forming a scab, and urushi still seeks the forest environment where it once lived.
While I work, although it is I who move my hands, urushi itself appeals to me about how it wishes to be. Every day I observe its state and try to read its reactions. As I touch it with my fingertips and gaze intently at the painted surface, my imagination reaches to the unseen dampness of the air and even to the scenery of the forest where urushi once lived. In this way, through urushi, my interest turned toward the various mediators of the world.
Even after a work is completed, it changes color slightly. Over time, the painted surface becomes more transparent, and the color of the blended pigments grows clearer. Or the images painted in the lower layers rise to the surface. When and how this will happen is unknown, but the work simply continues to exist together with the world.
About the Artist
Ayumi Okita (沖田愛有美)
Born in Okayama Prefecture in 1994 and based in Ishikawa Prefecture, Okita creates paintings using urushi as a medium. Viewing urushi, a plant sap that changes in ways beyond the maker's expectations, as a mediator connecting people and nature, Okita looks at the relationship between humans and non-human beings. The artist calls the rally in which urushi returns a response to each stroke of the maker a "collaboration" between the two, and extends this interest to the interaction with the natural environment that is inseparable from human activity.
Education:
- 2018: Graduated from Kanazawa College of Art, Oil Painting Course
- 2020: Completed the Master's Program in Crafts, Kanazawa College of Art
- 2024: Completed the Doctoral Program in Art Research, Kanazawa College of Art
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
- 2026: "透明な重力について" (Edit Room, Tokyo)
- 2025: "枝に生ぶ卵 とけきらぬ果実" (galleria PONTE, Ishikawa)
- 2024: "暦を運び、種を食（す）く" (白鷺美術, Ishikawa)
- 2024: "祝福は傷口を伝っていく" (クマ財団ギャラリー, Tokyo)
- 2024: "洞穴の暗がりに息づくもののために" (北千住 BUoY, Tokyo)
Selected Group Exhibitions:
- 2026: "Tell me why" (New Gallery, Tokyo), curated by 入澤聖明 and 青木彬
- 2026: "第17回 岡山県新進美術家育成 I氏賞選考作品展" (岡山県天神山文化プラザ, Okayama)
- 2025: "沖田愛有美 坂本那々莉 髙野詩音 Whiteout" (VACANT ROOM, Tokyo)
- 2025: "欲望の表面 - Surface of Desire," SISOUL.S Exhibition (MEDEL GALLERY SHU, Harajuku, Tokyo)
- 2025: "第3回 BUG ART AWARD ファイナリスト展" (アートセンター BUG, Tokyo)
- 2024: "具象⇔抽象 —絵画において具象的なものが抽象的なものに変わる瞬間や契機、あるいはその反対の現象" (ASTER Curator Museum, Ishikawa), curated by 山本浩貴
- 2024: "発酵文化芸術祭 金沢―みえないものを感じる旅へ―" (Kanazawa and Tsurugi town area, Ishikawa)
- 2022: "内灘闘争 風と砂の記憶" (内灘町歴史民俗資料館 風と砂の館, former Uchinada U.S. military test-firing range, former observation post at the impact site, Ishikawa)
Selected Art Fairs:
- 2025: "KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa 2025" (Tomio Koyama Gallery [Guest], galleria PONTE, Hyatt Centric Kanazawa, Ishikawa)
- 2024: "KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa 2024" (Tomio Koyama Gallery [guest], Hyatt Centric Kanazawa, Ishikawa)
- 2024: "Art Fair Beppu 2024" (Beppu International Tourist Port, former Ferry Sunflower terminal, Oita)
Awards and Grants:
- 2026: Grand Prize, "Ｉ氏賞" (17th Okayama Prefecture Emerging Artists Development)
- 2025: Finalist, 3rd BUG ART AWARD
- 2020: Selected as a 30th-term scholarship recipient, 公益財団法人佐藤国際文化育英財団
- 2018: Selected as a 2nd-term member, 公益財団法人クマ財団
- 2017: Excellence Award, 38th 瀧富士国際美術賞
- 2017: 15th 芝田賞, Kanazawa College of Art
Exhibition Details
Exhibition: Ayumi Okita Solo Exhibition "What Carries"
Period: November 21, 2026 (Saturday) – December 20, 2026 (Sunday)
Venue: GALLERY ROOM・A
Address: KAIKA Tokyo by THE SHARE HOTELS 1F STORAGE 1, 2-16-5 Honjo, Sumida-ku, Tokyo
Hours: 8:00 AM – 11:00 PM
Closed: Open daily throughout the exhibition period, including public holidays
Admission: Free
Access:
- Toei Asakusa Line "Asakusa Station" — 8-minute walk
- Toei Asakusa Line "Honjo-Azumabashi Station" — 9-minute walk
- Toei Oedo Line "Kuramae Station" — 9-minute walk
Exhibition page: https://artsticker.app/events/167180
About the Venue
On April 10, 2021, the commercial gallery GALLERY ROOM・A opened in "STORAGE 1" on the first floor of KAIKA Tokyo by THE SHARE HOTELS, a new type of accommodation known for combining an art storage facility with a hotel. The gallery is planned and operated by the art communication platform ArtSticker. Located in the first-floor space facing the building's entrance, it is an open place that can be visited by people who are not staying at the hotel.
Beyond solo exhibitions and artwork sales at the gallery, it aims to be a place to experience "art" through diverse interpretations, with exhibition projects in hotel guest rooms, workshops and accommodation programs that draw on the local character, talk events, and more.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/galleryrooma_artsticker/
