void+ in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo, is holding a solo exhibition by artist Yuichi Higashionna from October 16 (Friday) to November 14 (Saturday), 2026. The exhibition is titled "flew with her to a place where there is no hunger, no cold, and nothing to fear."
Overview
Higashionna finds "The Uncanny" (Sigmund Freud) — something familiar yet somehow distant — in the interiors once seen in many Japanese homes, and has made his works from that starting point.
For this exhibition, he presents new works inspired by "redacted official documents." The focus is on installations and tableaux that combine stripes with text fragments from Andersen's "The Little Match Girl," which is also quoted in the exhibition title. Works that offer an overview of the artist's recent interests are organically arranged across three spaces with different characteristics.
Artist Statement
The sense of incongruity I feel toward the interiors that once existed in every Japanese home, the "uncanniness" (Freud), is the motivation behind my work. Yet my works may be less an expression of "uncanniness" itself than a process of converting it into something else.
Furthermore, including this "uncanniness," it seems to me that "the aesthetic" in a broad sense — the sense of beauty and values that everyone shares in daily life without consciously noticing — is not unrelated to the formation of "political" orientations and preferences, and of ideology, which are usually considered to be larger matters.
— Yuichi Higashionna, September 2026
Yuichi Higashionna, "桃源郷通行許可証" (installation view), The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama (Saitama), 2022
Exhibition Details
Yuichi Higashionna: "flew with her to a place where there is no hunger, no cold, and nothing to fear"
Dates: October 16 (Friday) – November 14 (Saturday), 2026 (gallery2 is on view through November 7 (Saturday))
Hours: 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Reception: October 17 (Saturday), 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Venue: void+ (1F, 3-16-14 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo)
Organizers: Azone+Associates / void+
Closed: Sundays and Mondays
Website: https://www.voidplus.jp
About the Artist
Yuichi Higashionna
Starting in the 1990s, Higashionna has created works based on the sense of incongruity he feels in everyday life. Working across multiple media, he is known for representative works such as the "Chandelier" series, which makes extensive use of fluorescent lights (LED), and the "flowers" series, inspired by the vanitas paintings that flourished in 17th-century Holland.
At the end of 2025, he published a monograph, "Family Resemblance" (ori.studio), covering 20 years of his work in the 21st century.
Selected solo exhibitions
- 2025: "Family Resemblance," CAVE-AYUMI gallery (Tokyo)
- 2023: "Behind the drapes," The Third Gallery Aya (Osaka)
- 2020–2021: "Large Interior," void+ (Tokyo)
- 2019: "un-unheimlich," void+ (Tokyo)
- 2015: "let's get dizzy," Marianne Boesky Gallery (New York)
- 2011: "fluorescent," Marianne Boesky gallery (New York)
- 2010: "VENICE/TOKYO," Venice Projects (Venice) and Exit gallery (Hong Kong)
- 2009: "変成態－リアルな現代の物質性 Vol.4," gallery αM (Tokyo)
- 2008: Marianne Boesky Gallery (New York)
- 2003: "Light Bright Picnic," Setagaya Art Museum corridor (Tokyo)
Selected group exhibitions
- 2026: "Fort/da," ハイムリッヒカイト ニカイ (Tokyo)
- 2025: "認識と道徳、自然と自由を媒介するもの," ハイムリッヒカイト ニカイ (Tokyo)
- 2024: "日本現代美術私観：高橋龍太郎コレクション," Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Tokyo)
- 2023: "植物と光、依存と自由," void+ and Qusamura (Tokyo)
- 2022: "桃源郷通行許可証," The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama (Saitama); "Positionalities," Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery @KCUA (Kyoto); "世界の涯ての庭と室内。," AL (Tokyo)
- 2011: "Glasstress 2011," Palazzo Cavalli-Franchetti (Venice); "MASKED PORTRAIT Ⅱ," Marianne Boesky Gallery (New York)
- 2010: "The New Décor," Hayward Gallery (London)
- 2008: "The Masked Portrait I," Marianne Boesky Gallery (New York)
- 2007: "六本木クロッシング2007未来への脈動," Mori Art Museum (Tokyo)
- 2006: "愉しき家 Enjoyable House," Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art (Aichi)
- 2003: "ZONE," Fuchu Art Museum (Tokyo)
- 1999: "時代の体温Art/Domestic," Setagaya Art Museum (Tokyo)
