Museum Haus Kasuya in Yokosuka, Kanagawa will present a solo exhibition by artist Hirofumi Isoya titled "Restoring," running from March 12 (Thu) to May 17 (Sun), 2026.
Hirofumi Isoya studied architecture at Tokyo University of the Arts before going on to study fine art in the same university's graduate program and at Goldsmiths, University of London. His photographs, sculptures, and drawings are not static records of the past—they are choreographed as present events shared with the viewer and situated in space.
The exhibition focuses on two works that refuse to leave destruction in silence. Instead, they summon the memories and creativity latent within fragments into the present, connecting them to new ways of thinking. The works present a circuit in which "repairing" can lead to "creating," explored through the relationship between art and viewer.
Works on View
Photography: Fragments of Pangea
This photo series depicts fragments of porcelain from Rosdorf Castle in Austria, which was destroyed at the end of World War II, floating in milk. The milk functions as a small ritual site of regeneration, softly enveloping the sharp edges left by destruction and calling back into our imagination the forms these objects once held as vessels. The effort here is not physical "restoration"—recreating lost forms—but a spiritual "recovery" that finds new relationships among what has been broken apart.
Fragments of Pangea 06, 2025, Pigment Print
Fragments of Pangea 02, 2025, Pigment Print
Ceramics: Activation
This series of unglazed, bisque-fired ceramics uses shards of pottery approximately 5,000 years old that Isoya collected himself. These fragments were fired in the open air by ancient peoples, used in daily life, and eventually broken. In this work, he returns them to clay, mixes them with new clay, and fires them a second time. Rather than simply citing or reusing the past, he repositions past creativity in the present as a collaborative work across time—setting dormant knowledge back into motion.
Exhibition view: "Restoring," Museum Haus Kasuya, 2026
Events During the Exhibition
Opening Party & Gallery Talk
Date: Saturday, March 14, 2026, from 2:00 PM
A gallery talk by Hirofumi Isoya will be held to mark the opening of the exhibition.
Museum Talk: Hirofumi Isoya × Takuya Nakao
Date: Saturday, April 11, 2026, from 2:00 PM (Reservation required)
Art critic Takuya Nakao will join Hirofumi Isoya for a conversation. Through this dialogue, Isoya's expressions will be given language, providing visitors with a deeper understanding of his perspective and thinking.
Artist Profile
Hirofumi Isoya
Born in Tokyo in 1978. After graduating from the Department of Architecture at Tokyo University of the Arts, he studied fine art in the university's Graduate School of Fine Arts (Advanced Art Expression) and at Goldsmiths, University of London. Through the creation of photographs and sculptures, he explores the perception of reality and the relationship between matter and time. He approaches the relationship between space, works, and viewer as choreography, weaving exhibition experiences that unsettle perception and entrust the imagination with reflecting on reality.
Recent major exhibitions include PRADA Mode Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo, 2023), Finding Verbs (Koumi Town Highland Museum, Nagano, 2022), Constellations: Photographs in Dialogue (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, 2021), L'image et son double (Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2021), 'Go now,' says the bird, 'for humans cannot bear too much reality' (SCAI PIRAMIDE, Tokyo, 2021), Syncopation: Masters of the 20th Century and Contemporary Art (Pola Museum of Art, Kanagawa, 2019), Roppongi Crossing 2019: Connect (Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2019), and Festival des Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles – Le spectre du surréalisme (Les Forges, Arles, 2017). His works are held in the collections of the Centre Pompidou (Paris) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco), among others.
Exhibition Details
Exhibition Title: Hirofumi Isoya "Restoring"
Dates: March 12 (Thu) – May 17 (Sun), 2026
Venue: Museum Haus Kasuya
Address: 7-12-13 Hirasaku, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 238-0032
Hours: 10:00 AM – 5:30 PM (last entry at 5:00 PM)
Closed: Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays (open on April 29, May 4, 5, and 6)
Admission: General ¥800 / Students ¥600 / Elementary school children ¥400
Access:
- By train: 15-minute walk from Kinugasa Station on the JR Yokosuka Line / Approximately 15 minutes by Keikyu Bus from Keikyu Shioiri Station (toward Kinugasa Station), alight at Kanaya bus stop and walk 7 minutes
- By car: Approximately 5 minutes from Yokosuka IC on the Yokohama-Yokosuka Road; pass through the Abekura Tunnel, turn left at the next traffic light after the Hirasaku 4-chome intersection, then turn left past Fukusenji Temple
Website: https://www.museum-haus-kasuya.com/
