Galerie Tamenaga Kyoto will hold its annual "IMA KYOTO" exhibition from Saturday, December 5, 2026 to Monday, January 11, 2027 (public holiday). The gallery will be closed for the winter break from December 27 to January 4. Four young Japanese artists present their view of the present (ima) in Kyoto.
About the Exhibition
The exhibition began in 2022 with the aim of introducing the appeal of young Japanese artists connected to Kyoto, a city of culture that has built up history since ancient times, and of preserving their works for a thousand years to come. For the gallery, which has passed five years since it opened, it is also an important opportunity to meet new talent and take a fresh look at artistic worlds that have rarely been seen before.
This year's artists are Naoko Murata, who reconstructs analog collages and fragments of other people's records between figuration and abstraction, trying to share a vague and fleeting "time" with viewers; Yui Komatsumoto, who overlays the patterns of Detroit agate, a man-made mineral, with her own experiences and questions her own way of being; Chiharu Yakushigawa, who uses both hands and feet to paint a rich range of colors that mingle yet coexist independently; and Asuka Kaneko, who is exhibiting at Galerie Tamenaga for the first time and draws on her experience in architectural design and her field research in various places to depict landscapes of "the world that did not happen," freed from the constraints of reality.
The exhibition deliberately sets no specific theme and is organized freely around the single connection to Kyoto. Without a fixed framework, visitors can enjoy the diversity and richness of art itself.
The "IMA KYOTO" exhibition has often led to exhibitions at the gallery's Paris location, and it serves as a springboard for artists going from Kyoto out to the world. The exhibition is planned to continue for many years, offering a look at the unconstrained sensibilities of young artists sending their work from Kyoto to the world.
The Artists
Participating artists: Naoko Murata, Yui Komatsumoto, Chiharu Yakushigawa, Asuka Kaneko
Naoko Murata (村田 奈生子)
Born in 1984 in Osaka Prefecture. Graduated from the Japanese painting course of the Department of Fine Arts, Faculty of Art, Kyoto Seika University. Based on analog collages, she creates monochrome abstract paintings on the theme of time. By reconstructing geometric patterns and energetic strokes on the canvas, new forms emerge, which she overlays with the moment of "the present." In doing so she attempts to visualize "time," which has no form, is vague and fleeting, and can be grasped only within human consciousness. Although the compositions use restrained color, bold brushwork and layout convey a sense of dynamism within the stillness.
Selected for the "Idemitsu Art Award 2024." Recent group exhibitions include "IMA KYOTO – From the Ancient Capital to a Thousand Years Ahead" (Galerie Tamenaga Kyoto, 2023) and the "MONOCHROME" exhibition (Galerie Tamenaga Tokyo, 2024).
Yui Komatsumoto (小松本 結)
Born in 1993 in Mie Prefecture. Completed the master's program in oil painting (printmaking) in the Fine Arts and Crafts field at the Graduate School of Kyoto University of the Arts (formerly Kyoto University of Art and Design). The layered patterns she creates using a technique called "pouring" (垂らし込み) with oil and acrylic paints take as their motif "Detroit agate," which was born by chance from the accumulation of paint at an automobile factory in the United States.
On the layers of color formed by the flow and overlap of the paint, she adds further painting after drying, producing works in which chance and her own expression merge. Her range of expression runs from stylish works that catch the eye to melancholic works that evoke the wavering of emotions, conveying the quiet yet strong will of people living in the present.
Selected for "FACE2020 損保ジャパン日本興亜美術賞展." Recent group exhibitions include "IMA KYOTO" (Galerie Tamenaga Kyoto, 2025) and "桜満載 Merry Cherry Blossom" (Galerie Tamenaga Kyoto, 2026).
Chiharu Yakushigawa (薬師川 千晴)
Born in 1989 in Shiga Prefecture. Completed the master's program in art at the Graduate School of Art, Kyoto Seika University. She paints by applying handmade pigment paints, made with the classical technique of kneaded tempera (練り込みテンペラ), directly to her hands and feet. In her works, the borders between colors appear as boundaries where self and other, or different things, accept one another.
She chooses different forms of expression for each series. In the "knock" series, she focused on the act of knocking, a signal made before entering another person's territory, to explore the relationship between self and other in the age of social media. In recent years she has also worked and exhibited overseas and has drawn attention from around the world.
Major solo exhibitions include "ノックノック、境界の扉をノックする" (Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, The Triangle, 2025) and "Through the Veil, Across the Rub" (GINZA TSUTAYA BOOKS, Tokyo, 2025). Received the 滋賀県次世代文化賞 in 2019.
Asuka Kaneko (金子 明日香)
Born in Saitama Prefecture. Graduated from the Department of Architecture and Environmental Design, Faculty of Design Engineering, Tohoku University of Art and Design. She has been based in Kyoto since 2024.
Drawing on her experience in planning and design, she is interested in the drawings architects make as concepts and in unbuilt architecture, and she creates works using the traces of thought and hesitation found in them as clues. Taking places she has actually visited as motifs, she uses acrylic and pigment ink to paint landscapes freed from the constraints of reality. While exploring the sense of incongruity that arises in the process of giving form to an image, she keeps asking what kind of landscape "the world that did not happen" would be.
Major solo exhibitions include "此処ではないどこか" (Gallery201, Tokyo, 2024), and group exhibitions include "白の方向｜Sens of Shiro" (Kyoto Tsutaya Books, 2026).
Exhibition Details
IMA KYOTO
- Dates: Saturday, December 5, 2026 to Monday, January 11, 2027 (public holiday)
- Winter closure: Sunday, December 27 to Monday, January 4
- Venue: Galerie Tamenaga Kyoto
- Address: 265-7 Kamihorizume-cho, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City
- Phone: 075-532-3001
- Hours: 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM as shown on the sign at the gallery entrance (the exhibition overview lists 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM)
- Website: www.tamenaga.com
