Atsushi Kaga, Miwa Ogasawara, Yui Samejima, Teppei Takeda – Shaping the Unseen

Maho Kubota Gallery is pleased to present “Shaping the Unseen,” a group exhibition featuring Atsushi Kaga, Miwa Ogasawara, Yui Samejima, and Teppei Takeda. “Shaping the Unseen” brings together a rare selection of sketches and studies by four artists — works that have seldom been shown publicly — alongside the paintings that emerged from them.

The exhibition focuses on the beginning and evolution of artistic creation: the moment when memories, references, and indistinct images accumulated within an artist’s mind first assume visible form through the movement of the hand. Sketches and studies are not merely preparatory steps toward a finished work; they are where ideas first acquire their contours and begin a dialogue with the artist. We invite you to follow how an initial spark of thought unfolds into a painting — and sometimes into something beyond.

Based between Dublin and Kyoto, Atsushi Kaga continues to develop narratives in which his alter ego, Usacchi, and its companion Kumacchi, appear as recurring figures. Infused with humour and allegorical qualities, these narratives draw upon diverse pictorial traditions while, in recent years, engaging closely with the narrative sensibilities cultivated in traditional Japanese painting. As a painting begins to take shape, Kaga assembles sketches, references, and fragments of images into collages, waiting for the moment when the narrative begins to unfold on its own. This exhibition presents a rare selection of sketches and collages created during that formative process.

Working in Hamburg, Miwa Ogasawara is known for her oil paintings of quiet interiors, landscapes, and shifting light. Yet, in her own words, what she paints is not landscape but Humanity — human existence itself. In recent years, she has begun incorporating metal leaf into her paintings, embarking on a new body of experimental work. The works presented here belong to the very beginning of that exploration, revealing how her long-standing investigation into light and existence is transformed through the encounter with a new material.

Yui Samejima explores how we perceive the world, and how its fragments may be translated into painting. Her work brings together a physical sense of the world and the accumulation of human thought, giving rise to layered images. By presenting three works from different stages of the same creative process together, the exhibition makes visible how a single painting gradually takes shape.

Teppei Takeda is an artist who creates “paintings of paintings.” He begins by making small-scale esquisses based on the image that first appears in his mind, selecting the one that holds the greatest potential to become a painting. He then spends an extended period returning to that initial “picture,” painting it once again until it ultimately comes to fruition as a finished work. This exhibition presents a rare group of these original “pictures,” which have seldom been shown publicly, offering a unique opportunity to encounter the very core of Takeda’s artistic practice.

Each of the four artists arrives at painting through a different creative process. Yet, by turning our attention to the unseen forms that lie behind their finished works, “Shaping the Unseen” invites us to glimpse the paths of thought through which each painting comes into being.

Atsushi Kaga
Born in Tokyo in 1978. After receiving a BA in Fine Art from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin in 2005, Kaga began his practice based in Dublin. His works bring together Japanese elements and the aesthetics of traditional Western still-life painting in remarkable harmony. In recent years, he has also presented large-scale installations exploring the relationship between traditional Japanese architecture and painting.

Miwa Ogasawara
Born in Kyoto in 1973. Ogasawara studied under Norbert Schwontkowski and Werner Büttner at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts. Based in Hamburg, she depicts quiet scenes from everyday life in monochromatic oil paintings characterized by a blue-gray palette. Her works translate intangible notions such as streams of consciousness and philosophy into provisional forms, including flickering light, architectural spaces, and the shifting states of nature.

Yui Samejima
Born in Kyoto in 1988. Samejima received a BFA in Printmaking from Kyoto Seika University in 2010. Focusing on the way human perception is formed through the completion and integration of fragmented information, she creates paintings as devices that make visible the dynamic process through which meaning is woven and the world comes into being.

Teppei Takeda
Born in Yamagata City in 1978. After studying at an art university, Takeda returned to his hometown of Yamagata, where he spent approximately ten years pursuing his own artistic practice. In 2013, he began developing the approach that characterizes his work today. By directly engaging the systems of human vision and perception, his work paradoxically confronts viewers in the age of social media with a fundamental question: the physical experience of looking at a painting. His practice continues to captivate audiences across national borders.

Gallery hours Tue-Sat 12:00 – 19:00
closed Sun, Mon and National Holidays

Exhibition Duration 12.09. – 17.10.2026

www.mahokubota.com

Location:
Maho Kubota Gallery
2-4-7 Jingumae Shibuya-ku
150-0001 Tokyo
Japan