◯ Opening Reception：2026.02.28 Sat. 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

 

LOKO GALLERY is pleased to present Flickers of sceneries, a solo exhibition by Moe Kimura.
Following The Garden of Dough(2021) and Tracing the Brackish Water(2024), this marks Kimura’s third solo exhibition at the gallery.
Kimura has continued her painting practice using translucent cotton fabric as a support, incorporating techniques adapted from Vietnamese silk painting and working with acrylic and watercolor. Her works, which appear to hold light and air within their surfaces, quietly evoke landscapes that shift over time and a sensibility that yields to ambiguous boundaries.
In addition to her paintings, this exhibition presents a new series of pastel drawings. These works draw attention to the subtle fluctuations inherent in the act of drawing itself, as well as the fleeting “flicker” of scenes that momentarily emerge and disappear. We hope visitors will take this opportunity to experience these works in the gallery.

 

 

“I am walking through the city at night.

Various objects beneath the eaves are illuminated by the streetlights, casting long shadows.

Adjacent shadows connect with one another, sometimes breaking apart, forming new outlines.

Grass and trees sway in the wind, and their shadows tremble in response.

As I watch this scene, I find myself wondering whether these ever-shifting, indistinct contours—constantly in flux—might in fact be the true form.

Moe KIMURA”

 

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The Painting of the Threshold: Toward True Realism

 

Watching each Moe Kimura’s painting convinces me that the world truly exists just as it is.

In her former works, she realistically depicted motifs composed of abstract forms such as geometric wooden pieces like toy blocks or amorphous clay masses called “dough.” Does questioning what it appears to be, rather than what it is, emphasize subjective perception rather than objective reality? Or does painting “directly” on wood scraps, or translucent cotton gauze through which the wooden frame shows, aim at the unity of substance and phenomenon? The weave pattern of warp and weft threads evokes not so much the modernist grid as it creates, especially when photographed, moiré that intensify the illusion. The texture, literally, overlap with the wood grain of the support, making it impossible to discern whether this is the actual substance or a temporary illusion.

In any case, underlying the work by the painter of penetrating insight is a doubt about the conventional notion that images are founded on matter. If the image is merely the representation of object and not a real thing, then realistic pictures can only mean ones that resemble the real thing. No matter how realistically it is painted, a painting is not a real thing, and it is supposed that the real thing exists behind the image. The more we think about the relationship between seeing and being, the more we fall into dualism, assuming a true nature lies behind appearances.

Indeed, the painter no longer composes the objects herself. The form of her works becomes extremely fragile, easily influenced by environmental factors like light or wind. The unstable image reinforces the impression that it is a transient phenomenon. What appears as some form or shape is, in truth, void. It becomes increasingly unclear whether things are actually there or merely appear to be. Paints used more like dyes than pigments do not sit on the surface but permeate and become one with it. There is no front or back, only the boundary itself. Like a semipermeable membrane, it reflects half our gaze back to this side while allowing the other half to pass through to the other side.

Moe Kimura’s paintings are not representations of things but real in the truest sense. The more you scrutinize them, the more they confirm that there is nothing “behind” the images and that all is what you see now. Things exist because you see them; if you did not see them, they are not to be. The very concept of subject and object is an illusion. Just as each Kimura’s painting is, the world exists as the threshold between this side and the other side.

 

Mare Isakari (Art Critic)

 

Moe KIMURA CV

1992  Born in Saitama, Japan
2017  BFA, Oil Painting, Department of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts
2018  Studied silk painting techniques in Vietnam
2020  MFA, Oil Painting (Techniques and Materials), Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts

▪︎Solo exhibitions
2026  “Flickers of sceneries“ LOKO GALLERY, Tokyo
2024  “space key” GALLERY VALEUR, Aichi
2024  “Tracing the Brackish Water” LOKO GALLERY, Tokyo
2024  “Fukiyose”Luftalt, Tokyo
2022  “Hyōchakuten”JINEN GALLERY, Tokyo
2021  “Garden of Dough” LOKO GALLERY, Tokyo

▪︎Group exhibitions
2025  “FACE Selected Artists Small Works Exhibition 2025” Reijinsya Gallery, Tokyo
2025  “Jianjia Cangcang – The Eastern Poetics of Translucent Medium Painting” SoART GALLERY, Shanghai
2025  “Finding Fantastic Foundation” SNOW gallery, Tokyo
2023  “grid2”biscuit gallery, Tokyo
2022  “The voice of heritage”Former Tanaka Family of House., Saitama
2022  “Orion Belt, or the Karasuki Star” HB.Nezu, Tokyo
2020  “Kamiyama Foundation the 6th Graduation Exhibition” AXIS Gallery, Tokyo
2020  “Iime Fukurame exhibition” Nagoya Matsuzakaya, Aichi
2019  “TENKU Art Festival 2019” Nagano
2018  “short short” Tokyo University of the Arts Yuga Gallery, Tokyo

▪︎Art Fairs
2021  ART TAIPEI 2021, World Trade Center, Taipei
2021  DELTA 2021, Osaka

▪︎Awards
2025  “FACE 2025” Selected Artist / SOMPO Museum of Art, Tokyo
2020  “Tokyo University of the Arts Graduation Works Exhibitions”Teikyo University Award
2020  “Kamiyama Foundation the 6th Graduation Exhibition” Grand prize
2019  “Iime Fukurame exhibition” Excellence Award / Art Collectors Award Public collection

▪︎Public Collections
2020  Teikyo University
2020  Kamiyama Foundation
2017  Minakami Town

 

Artist Website
https://arumik305.myportfolio.com/work

Instagram
@moe7600

ARTIST PROFILE: Moe KIMURA