Ginza Tsutaya Books (GINZA SIX, 6F, Chuo-ku, Tokyo) is holding the group exhibition "On Transience," featuring Izumi Akiyama, Nobuaki Onishi, Yugo Kohrogi, and Jin Jiachen, at its in-store art space FOAM CONTEMPORARY from Saturday, September 19 to Wednesday, October 7.
Overview
Izumi Akiyama, Nobuaki Onishi, and Jin Jiachen join the exhibition in response to the theme of transience set out by Yugo Kohrogi. Working in painting, drawing, and three-dimensional form, each artist engages in their own way with things that are elusive and ever-shifting.
All around us are things that clearly exist yet resist being given a definite shape — light, bodily sensation, the presence of objects, memory. Ambiguous, ever-changing territory also arises between seeing and existing, between the original and its copy, and between personal experience and our relationships with others.
Rather than treating transience simply as something that fades away, the exhibition approaches it as a sensation that emerges momentarily between different states of being. Through a space where the four artists' works intersect, it turns attention toward fluctuations and traces that usually go unnoticed, and considers our relationship with an ever-changing world.
Artist's Statement
The exhibition at the Uki City Shiranui Museum (Kumamoto) that, under ordinary circumstances, would still be running right now was canceled because of the recent Kumamoto earthquake. Thinking of everything lost in this disaster, and of those in the affected areas who are still facing difficult circumstances, I hope with all my heart that peaceful, ordinary days return as soon as possible.
The theme "On Transience" connects to a legend tied to the place name "Shiranui."
The story goes: long ago, when Emperor Keiko visited Kyushu, he lost his bearings on the sea at night, and made it safely to shore by following a mysterious light in the distance. When the emperor asked the local people who was the source of that light, they answered, "No one knows" — and so the light came to be called shiranui, meaning "unknown fire."
A presence that appears in darkness and leads people without ever taking on a definite form resonates with the transience this exhibition considers. Buddhist thought, for instance, holds the view of impermanence — that everything changes. This exhibition turns its attention to that kind of sensation: something that slips away the moment you try to grasp it, just short of becoming clear words. Like the "unknown fire" said to have guided people across the dark sea long ago, I believe we can find richness and beauty in things that are uncertain, that waver, and that eventually disappear.
— Yugo Kohrogi
Sales
Works on display at the venue will go on sale starting at 11:00 AM on Saturday, September 19.
A selection of works will also be sold on the art e-commerce platform OIL, from 11:00 AM on Tuesday, September 22 to 11:59 PM on Wednesday, October 7.
Note: depending on how presales go, sales of some works may end before the exhibition opens.
Artist Profiles
Izumi Akiyama
"Still Life XXVI," 2010-2026, H970×W1303mm, pencil on paper
Born in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture in 1982. Graduated from the Oil Painting course of the Department of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2007, and completed the Painting program at the university's Graduate School of Fine Arts in 2009. Through the delicate gradations of light and deep sense of space created by layering pencil again and again, Akiyama depicts a presence, mystery, and quiet stillness that go beyond the form of the still life, exploring a distinctive style that removes outlines and unifies subject and background.
Solo exhibitions include San Galerie (Taipei) and Art on Paper Amsterdam (Netherlands) in 2025, and Drawing Now Art Fair (Paris) in 2024. Group exhibitions include MoCAF (BGC, Philippines), "A Condensed Presence" at Kobayashi Gallery (Tokyo), and Art Fair Philippines (Makati, Philippines), all in 2026.
Nobuaki Onishi
"Tool box #4," painted resin, W370×D150×H205mm (photo: Hikari Okawara)
Born in Okayama Prefecture in 1972. Completed the Printmaking program at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts in 1998.
Onishi casts and colors natural objects and everyday things in resin, using structures of reproduction and inversion to create objects and multiples. By deliberately letting a texture that could be mistaken for the real thing coexist with transparent sections, he expresses an in-between state, incorporating qualities such as thinness and mirrored surfaces to question what "existence" and "the original" mean. The concepts he developed while mastering printmaking techniques are also clearly present in the prints he produces alongside his three-dimensional work. Since 2011, he has also continued a project born from dialogue with fellow artist Kazuo Okazaki, with whom he co-created the multiple work "Born Twice."
Yugo Kohrogi
"30.01%," 2025, oil on canvas, H500×W727mm (portrait photo: Hisatomo Eto)
Born in Kumamoto Prefecture in 1982. Completed the Graduate School of Fine Arts program at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2009. Centered on the motif of the body, Kohrogi focuses on ambiguous, ever-shifting elements such as light, color, and vision, exploring the expansion of what painting can be.
Major exhibitions include "Shiranui" at Shiranui Museum, Kumamoto (2026); "Longing for the Ever-Changing" at Seiriki Museum, Fukuoka (2025); VOCA 2023 at the Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo (2023); KYOTO STEAM 2022 at the Kyocera Museum of Art, Kyoto (2022); and "The Takahashi Collection: Faces and Abstraction" at Kiyoharu Shirakaba Museum, Yamanashi (2018), among others. Major awards include the Fukuoka Art Award (2025) and an Excellence Award at the TERRADA ART AWARD (2014). Kohrogi has taken part in artist residencies in Spain and Bulgaria, among other places.
Jin Jiachen
"Shedding Old Scales, Breathing Through New Gills," H700×W950mm, acrylic, pastel, cotton cloth
Born in China in 1993, now based in Aichi Prefecture. Completed the master's program in Oil Painting and Printmaking at the Graduate School of Aichi University of the Arts in 2022. Taking cues from the fluctuations that arise through bodily sensation and relationships with others, Jin works mainly in drawing and painting.
Solo exhibitions include "An Elephant in My Heart" (Shanghai), "Running Beast" (Tokyo), and "Salting Your Shadow" (Nagoya), among others. Jin has received the GEISAI #22 & Classic MADSAKI Judge's Award, the Holbein Art Award, a scholarship as the 37th Holbein Scholarship recipient, and the R.E. Award 2025. Jin has completed artist residencies at ASP in Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Hazi in Iwakura, Aichi Prefecture; and Brew Gallery in Shiraoi, Hokkaido.
Exhibition Details
- Exhibition: Izumi Akiyama, Nobuaki Onishi, Yugo Kohrogi, Jin Jiachen, "On Transience"
- Dates: Saturday, September 19 to Wednesday, October 7, 2026
- Hours: 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM (closes at 6:00 PM on the final day)
- Opening reception: Friday, September 18, 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM. Open to all, no reservation required; participating artists are scheduled to give artist talks and gallery tours during the reception.
- Venue: Ginza Tsutaya Books, FOAM CONTEMPORARY
- Organizer: Ginza Tsutaya Books
- Curation: Yugo Kohrogi
- Admission: Free
- Closed: Mondays (also closed on Monday, September 21, a public holiday)
Event page: https://store.tsite.jp/ginza/event/art/56594-1024450903.html
