On October 6 (Tuesday), an exhibition featuring three artists with different ways of expressing themselves and different creative backgrounds opens in Shonan Hiratsuka. It is held at Kiki!! CREATIVE GALLERY&CAFE (嬉々‼CREATIVE GALLERY&CAFE), an atelier and welfare facility in Hiratsuka.
The exhibition is titled "The Pursuing Artists Exhibition" (追求するアーティスト展), with the subtitle "Even works whose subjects aren't obvious at first glance are something each artist is pursuing."
About the Exhibition
The three featured artists are Oshino, who has kept drawing the same pattern for 15 years; Saito, who encountered the work of Basquiat and has since pursued "drawing freely, like doodling"; and Matsumoto, who began to question what art really is after encountering works by people with disabilities. Through their respective encounters, Saito and Matsumoto both came to see that "it's fine to be even freer."
"So what exactly is this 'freedom'?"
"Why does this person keep making this?"
The exhibition looks at the expression these three have pursued over a long time, along with the time and exploration behind it, and invites each visitor to take away their own impressions.
Kiki!! CREATIVE has roughly 80 artists with widely varied styles, and this autumn's exhibition showcases the distinct worlds of three of them.
Exhibition Details
- Exhibition: The Pursuing Artists Exhibition (追求するアーティスト展)
- Dates: October 6 (Tue) to November 21 (Sat), 2026
- Venue: Kiki!! CREATIVE GALLERY&CAFE (嬉々‼CREATIVE GALLERY&CAFE), 14-8 Akashicho, Hiratsuka (6-minute walk from the west exit of Hiratsuka Station)
- Hours: 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM
- Closed: Sundays, Mondays, and public holidays
- Open Saturdays: October 17, November 7, and November 21
Featured Artists
Kazuki Oshino
Using pens such as Posca and Mackee (マッキー), Oshino draws colorful works with evident enjoyment. The winding, swirling shapes, which look like a maze or like writing, have never been deciphered by anyone. Oshino has particular colors for particular placements ("this color goes here"), and this "Osshii color" (おっしーカラー) holds firm even when the materials change, as with iron-on beads.
Oshino has a somewhat sage-like presence and enjoys yoga, especially frog jumps.
Toshiyuki Saito
Saito began painting abstract works after seeing Basquiat's work when young and being struck by the idea that "painting can be much freer." The early works were geometric-looking patterns drawn with ballpoint pens on drawing paper, which later shifted to a style with lines drifting through deep space, made with acrylic paint and crayons.
A few years ago, Saito began a series titled "Rakugaki" (Doodles), in which figurative motifs such as people, animals, and words appear. It has grown to more than 100 works.
Many of the words in the works seem negative at first glance, but they carry a wish for a world without war and for world peace.
Tsutomu Matsumoto
Born in 1959 (Showa 34), Matsumoto has been writing poetry since their twenties, with more than 2,000 works to date, expressing personal sensations and everyday life through poetry. An encounter with works by people with disabilities became an opportunity to think about their own expression. The once hard-to-grasp poems have given way to words that reach everyone from children to adults.
The works sometimes have a touch of humor and comedy, and behind it, they convey the time one person has lived. Alongside poetry, this exhibition also includes paintings and other works.
