Kyoto Tsutaya Books, on the 5th and 6th floors of Kyoto Takashimaya S.C. [T8] in Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto, is hosting artist Marino Funahashi's solo exhibition "Embedded in it" at the 5F Art Wall from Saturday, August 29 through Friday, September 18, 2026.
Feature page: store.tsite.jp/kyoto
Overview
Marino Funahashi is an artist who explores human perception, memory, and the senses through abstract painting, working under the theme of "a return to humanity." She focuses on the nature of memory not as something simply stored, but as something reconstructed each time it is recalled, with fragmented sensations, scenes, and emotions bound together anew. Even in a modern society where information can be stored accurately and retrieved instantly, human memory keeps being edited, continually losing something and supplementing something else. Funahashi believes that humanity itself resides in that ambiguous, imperfect process.
The exhibition title, "Embedded in it," points to traces of time etched into materials as well as the memories and sensations that quietly accumulate within a person. Focusing on the fluid nature of human memory, the show visualizes that state of being through the artworks themselves.
For her new works, Funahashi has for the first time incorporated fresco, a technique with roughly 4,000 years of history. Fresco — in which pigment is fixed into plaster and allowed to harden — has the quality of enduring for long periods of time. The chips and peeling that occur when the painted surface is lifted from the wall and transferred onto a panel become part of the work itself, expressing, alongside the accumulation of time, the ambiguity and change inherent in memory. Among the new pieces is one such example: 柔らかさと棘の間 -Embedded in fresco #1 (325×400×20mm; plaster, sand, pigment, animal glue, adhesive, wood panel; 2026).
The exhibition also includes oil paintings Funahashi has continued to work on. Using a staining technique, in which thinly diluted paint is allowed to soak into the support, she develops an abstract expression that makes use of bleeding and blurring, attempting to depict the layered memories and sensations embedded within. Works in the exhibition include 柔らかさと棘の間 -Embedded in fresco #1 (325×400×20mm; plaster, sand, pigment, animal glue, adhesive, wood panel; 2026).
Artist's Statement
Human memory is not something fixed. Each time we recall it, memory is reconstructed anew. Fragments of sensation, scenery, and emotion are reassembled into a single landscape. In that process, something is lost, and something is supplemented. What we call "memory" may be nothing more than an act that is repeatedly edited and reconstructed.
Precisely because we live in an age when information can be stored accurately and retrieved instantly, this ambiguous, imperfect process is a sense unique to human beings — and I believe humanity resides within that very imperfection.
For this exhibition, I have made fresco works based on the process by which traces of time become embedded in materials, depicting how memory continues to exist while changing shape. "Embedded in it" is a question directed not only at the time etched into the support, but also at the memories and sensations quietly embedded within us.
By reinterpreting fresco — a classical technique with roughly 4,000 years of history — for the present day, and by incorporating materials that contain time itself, along with the losses and traces born from the creative process, as part of the expression, I am attempting a new way of expressing memory.
On the theme I have set for myself, "a return to humanity": to me, this does not mean returning to some primitive past. I believe it means looking once again, within ambiguity, fluctuation, and imperfection, at the reasons we are human.
Artwork Sales
Works on display go on sale in the venue from 10:30 AM on Saturday, August 29.
*Depending on presale conditions, sales may end before the exhibition period begins.
On the art e-commerce platform "OIL," the works will be sold from 10:30 AM on Tuesday, September 1 through 8:00 PM on Friday, September 18.
About the Artist
Marino Funahashi
Born in 1989 in Aichi Prefecture. Raised close to painting from childhood under the influence of her father, a painter, Funahashi completed the Spatial Design course of the Design major at Musashino Art University's Graduate School of Art and Design. Working under the theme of a return to humanity, she creates abstract expressions across a variety of materials exploring the processes of human memory and perception, along with invisible memories, sensations, and imperfection. She has repeatedly shown work at overseas art fairs, including in South Korea, Denmark, and Abu Dhabi.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
- 2026: "あわいに触れる" (Hankyu Men's Osaka Contemporary Art Gallery, Osaka)
- 2026: "FILTER - Reconstructing the Unseen" (JPS GALLERY, Hong Kong)
- 2025: "消えゆく輪郭" (Nagoya Mitsukoshi Sakae 7F Art Salon, Aichi)
- 2025: "Inner Elements" (EVERANDART, Tokyo)
- 2025: "RAIN" (ALLDAY GALLERY, Tokyo)
- 2025: "Unseen: Quiet Landscapes Within" (Karuizawa New Art Museum WHITESTONE GALLERY 1, 2, Nagano)
- 2025: "視線の対話" (WORLDTIMES, Hyogo)
- 2024: "玉響の庭" (gallery201, Tokyo)
- 2024: "DESIGNART TOKYO 2024 Special Exhibition" (Seibu Shibuya Show Window, Tokyo)
- 2023: "曖昧美" (MA5 GALLERY, Tokyo)
- 2023: "DESIGNART TOKYO 2023 Solo Exhibition" (SieMatic Aoyama, Tokyo)
- 2022: "色の記憶" (ALLDAY GALLERY, Tokyo)
- 2022: "CONFRONT" (MONKEY GALLARY, Tokyo)
Exhibition Details
Marino Funahashi Solo Exhibition "Embedded in it"
Dates: August 29 (Sat) – September 18 (Fri), 2026
Hours: 10:30 AM–8:00 PM (closes at 5:00 PM on the final day only)
Venue: Kyoto Tsutaya Books, 5F Art Wall — Kyoto Takashimaya S.C. [T8] 5F/6F, 35 Otabi-cho, 2-chome, Shijo-dori Teramachi Higashi-iru, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto
Admission: Free
Inquiries: 075-606-4525 (during business hours) / kyoto.info@ttclifestyle.co.jp
Feature Page: store.tsite.jp/kyoto
