LOKO GALLERY is pleased to present At the Edge of Twilight and the Parallel World, the first solo exhibition by Tomotaka Yasui to be held at the gallery, opening on November 21.
Yasui has long centered his practice on the question: what is the atmosphere that arises from a person? Through his works, he has continued to pursue this invisible presence. Using the classical and technically demanding kanshitsu (dry lacquer) method, he has created clothed figures that seem to envelop the body in layers of air. Following a pivotal piece, however, Yasui paused his engagement with kanshitsu and embarked on a new phase—one that deconstructs and expands his craftsmanship and methodology.

In this new practice, he uses a 3D scanner to digitize the entire form of the human body and a 3D printer to generate its three-dimensional form. This digitally-driven process, which no longer relies on the artist’s direct physical touch, creates a distinct distance between the artist and the model. At the same time, it reveals a will to probe deeper layers of perception—tracing the origins of the horizon and the vertical axis upon which his figure stands.

Yet one might ask: can such digital processes truly capture the atmosphere of a person? In fact, the unintended “noise” that emerges—whether internal or external—loosens forms, dissolves contours, and unsettles the purity of representation. But it is precisely in this disturbed purity that Yasui finds beauty: in the forever elusive sensation lies a deeper reality, and in that very elusiveness, the desire to grasp it entirely.

In the field of artificial intelligence, “noise” is often treated as something to be eliminated; even human unpredictability tends to be dismissed as an unnecessary variable. By contrast, Yasui’s work does not seek merely to eliminate noise, but to uncover another world concealed within it—a parallel world that he continues to pursue in his search for the invisible atmosphere of human presence.

In recent years, Yasui has extended this inquiry beyond the human figure to encompass space and environment themselves as sculptural “images.”
In his video works, he treats the atmosphere of houses and cities as sculptural material, while in series such as his blue (lapis lazuli) and Clothing and Shoes for Sculpture, he uses physical absence as a medium to evoke presence.
Taken together, these practices form a continuous pursuit of the subtle gradations of “air” that arise in the threshold between humanity and the world.

We invite you to visit and experience the exhibition.

EVENT

◯ Sunday, November 16, 2025　15:00–17:00
Keisuke Kondo and Motohiro Tomii ”Possibly a Human—Somewhat Classical”
Talk Event 2 “The Écriture of Installation and Dismantling”

Keisuke Kondo, Hirohisa Tomii, Tomotaka Yasui

This talk event is an experiment set in the “in-between space” that emerges between exhibitions.
One exhibition comes to an end—its works are packed up and carried away.
Meanwhile, the pieces for the next show are being unpacked, and a new presence quietly begins to fill the space.

In this moment where lingering memories of the past and the anticipation of what is to come intersect, what do the artists speak of?
We turn our attention to that fleeting, suggestive instant when something is born—not with fanfare, but with quiet certainty—hovering between absence and presence, past and future.

◯ Saturday, December 6, 2025 — Talk Event 15:00– / Reception 17:00–

Tomotaka Yasui × Hiroyuki Seike × Hirohiko Akutsu

“The World of Gradation”

Can we really draw clear lines in the world?
Between inside and outside the body, nature and the artificial, past and present—
perhaps these things do not exist in strict separation, but rather blend gently into one another.

In this talk, through the distinct practices of sculpture, art anatomy, and fashion,
we will explore how we can perceive and give form to a world understood as a “continuum without boundaries.”
As we move through the shifting atmosphere of the city, the contours of the body, and the afterimages of memory,
we will search for what lies hidden within ambiguity.

Hiroyuki Seike
Born in 1963. Presented the “SEIKE” collection in 1993. Has worked on design and direction for brands such as ISSEY MIYAKE PERMANENTE, MARY QUANT, and MUJI.

Hirohiko Akutsu
Born in 1973. Ph.D. (Medicine). Associate Professor, Sculpture Department, Tokyo Zokei University. Teaches art anatomy and human anatomy at Tokyo University of the Arts and other institutions.

At the Edge of Twilight and a Parallel World
Tomotaka Yasui

For a long time, I have been trying to grasp what I call a person’s atmosphere.
Perhaps it is something that cannot be captured by appearance or with words.
Memories and experiences dwell within a person, together with the unconscious responses etched into their body. These quietly resonate with air, light, heat, distance, or the presence of place, sending faint ripples through me and my surroundings—something that hovers between certainty and ambiguity.

This atmosphere shifts from day to day; the more I try to grasp it, the more its contours dissolve.
Yet even in a person’s physical absence, there are moments when their presence suddenly rises before me.

Objects or traces once touched by someone can still breathe with their presence, even after they’ve gone.
And when such things are wholly unrelated, it could simply be a projection of memory—or perhaps the flux of one time bending into another.

In this exhibition, I turn to subjects drawn from my everyday encounters—stones, clothes and shoes, houses and towns, and someone. Through them, I trace my experience with material and space. And within them, I hear the atmospheric tremors between presence and absence.

Layers of memory overlapping each object, together with the faint presences that emerge from them, blur the outlines of reality and gently shift our perception.

At the edge of twilight, where the certain and the uncertain overlap, I continue to stand—sensing the presence of a parallel world hidden within the depths of everyday life.
Perhaps only within this fluctuation can I truly face the world and reaffirm my own existence.

Perhaps “atmosphere” is, in itself, an attitude—one that accepts the ungraspable as it is.

Tomotaka Yasui　CV

1974　Born in Antwerp, Belgium
2006　Artist in Residence “The Jerusalem Center For The Visual Arts” Jerusalem, Israel
2006　Subsidized by Pola Art Foundation

Solo Exhibitions
2020 “Something of someone and something” MA2gallery, Tokyo
2019 “Misty” void+, Tokyo
2019 “Vertical and Horizonal Art noaru [MA].” Shinjuku Prince Hotel+G, Tokyo
2016 “Will in the distanceI” MA2Galley, Tokyo
2016 “Light and time in the air” Mizuho Oshiro Gallery, Kagoshima
2014 “Tomotaka Yasui / silence” The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Kanagawa
2014 “light” MA2Gallery,Tokyo
2011 “Tomotaka Yasui -Tranquil Reflection-” Megumi Ogita Gaallery, Tokyo
2008 “Tomoaka Yasui -capsule-” Megumi Ogita Gallery, Tokyo
2007 “Tomoaka Yasui -Suculpture-” Megumi Ogita Gallery, Tokyo
2006 “YASUI Tomotaka Exhibition” Asahikawa Museum of Sculpture In Honor of Teijiro Nakahara, Asahikawa, Hokkaido
2006 “YASUI Tomotaka Exhibition -Silence-” Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2004 “YASUI Tomotaka Exhibition” SPACE-S, Tokyo
2002 “YASUI Tomotaka Exhibition” Gallery SEIHO, Tokyo

Group Exhibitions
2025  KOTOGEI 25, TOYTOYTOY, Takamatsu
2025  Setouchi Triennale 2025 Spring Session -SAY YES-, Seijima/Sakaide
2025  LA「zaicopass」, NADiff a/p/a/r/t, Tokyo
2024 “［VOID+STOCK］exhibition: part3”, void+, Tokyo
2024  YAMAGATA Biennalre 2024 in ZAOU -SCREWDRIVER KANTOTOMOKICHI-, ZAOU, Yamagata
2024  SCREWDRIVER 1st shot -SCULPLAY- , Matsumoto Art Center, Matsumoto
2024  Skin and Bone -About things that sink into a gradation- Sculptor’s house, Takamatsu
2023 “Water, Something Uncertain” MA2Gallery, Tokyo
2023  KIOKUWATOKIKA Spiral Garden, Tokyo
2022  AGAIN-ST 10th Exhibition “Roots Tools” Musashino Art University Museum&Library Gallery3, Tokyo
2022  Window Gallery Project vol.3 Akihiro Higuchi Tomotaka YASUI MA2gallery, Tokyo
2022  Peek into the sleeping drawing Sculptor’s house, Takamatsu
2021  Sculpture exhibition “Kiinseido:Denchu Hirakushi and works connecting tradition with the future2 , Meiji Jingu
2021  Window Gallery Project vol.2 Kyotaro Hakamata Tomotaka YASUI MA2gallery, Tokyo
2020 “Takamatsu Contemporary Art Annual vol.09 Imagine the presence of “Time” – leads us to the new views” Takamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa
2019 “Small Infinity” MA2Galley, Tokyo
2019  AGAIN-ST 9th Exhibition “BREAK / BREAKER” Musashino Art University、309・310studio, Tokyo
2019  Included temperature The Art Museum of Tokyo National University of Arts, Tokyo
2019  Figurative Sculpture [the exploration of its novel ways] Gallery SEIHO, Tokyo
2018 “-So-guillemets + saruyama with MA2Gallery artists” MA2Galley, Tokyo
2018  AGAIN-ST Extra Edition 8th Exhibition　Yamagata Biennale
2018  Between Cafe and Sculpture? ROOTS & technique gallery, Yamagata
2018  Nou+Art MA2Galley, Tokyo
2018  A sculpture called a house in the town. And furniture for the space. Sculptor’s house, Takamatsu
2017 “Timeless–Contemporary Japanese Art Exhibition”　AKI Gallery/Taipei, Taiwan
2017  The Aizu Art Project “Flower Garden and sign”Oyakuen, Fukushima
2017  AGAIN-ST Extra Edition 7th Exhibition “OUTBOUND” Kanazawa College of Art, Ishikawa
2017  AGAIN-ST 6th Exhibition “Sculpture of peace” NADiff Gallery, Tokyo
2016 “Rediscovering Three-Dimensional Art in Japan”
2016  Gunma Museum of Art, Tatebayashi, Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Mie Prefectural Museum of Art
2015 “Wabi Aabi Shima” Thalie Art Foundation, Brussels, Belgium
2015  Open Theater “KAAT TOTSUZEN MUSEUM” Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Kanagawa
2015 “BOOK Chapter-2” MA2Gallery, Tokyo
2014  AGAIN-ST 4th Exhibition ”Sculpture is (not) Ornaments” Tohoku University of Art And Design, Gallery, Yamagata
2013  AGAIN-ST 2nd Exhibition Nihon University College of Art Art Gallery, A&D Gallery, Chika Ecoda, Tokyo
2013  AGAIN-ST 3rdExhibition ”Dependent Sculpture” Tokyo University of The Arts Gallery, Tokyo
2013  A STEP AHEAD OF STANDING STILL DILLON GALLERY, N.Y., U.S.A.
2013  calm stream Aizu, Fukushima
2012 “ -XYZ-” MegumiOgita Gallery , Tokyo
2012 “A sense of beauty to revive“, Gunma Museum of Art Tatebayashi, Gunma
2012   AGAIN – ST 1st Exhibition, Tokyo ZOKEI University CS Gallery, Tokyo
2012   Meguro Address:Artist in Urban Life Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo
2012   pala calm Busshozan-Onsen , Takamatsu
2011 “The two geostationary objects” Art Center Ongoing, Tokyo
2011  Satellite in Calm Satellite, Okayama
2011  Calm in Kgawa -Traveling in Many Sense- Takamatsu
2010 “Urushi no chikara” Fukushima Museum, Fukushima
2010  Jardin de minuit La Galerie 59 – AFTERSQUAT, Paris, France
2010  -calm- Tomoaka Yasui + STORE & Yuuki Ono Book Gallery Wall, Tokyo
2010  Fuku to Zoh L.A.Tomari + STORE, Store, Tokyo
2010  -calm-, Tomotaka Yasui, STORE, Yuuki Ono, Dokyuncompany Megumi Ogita Gallery, Tokyo
2009 “Japan Fantasy” Della Pina Arte Contemporanea, Pietrasanta, Luxembourg
2009  Inokai 2 SPACE-S, Tokyo
2008 “Humans made by Humans” Kasugai City Library Culture and Art Center in Aichi Prefecture, Aichi
2007 “Ki Katacgu ga Yadosumono” Asahikawa Museum of Sculpture In Honor of Teijiro Nakahara, Hokkaido
2007  KEREN colors be Chinretsu Gallery of the Art Museum of Tokyo University of Arts, Tokyo
2007  Inokai SPACE-S, Tokyo
2006 “COOL 4” Gallery360°, Tokyo
2005 “The Shop” A comfortable way to wear Modern Art, Tokyo

Public Collection
Asahikawa Museum of Sculpture In Honor of Teijiro Nakahara
The Art Museum of Tokyo National University of Arts
Thalie Art Foundation
The Hakone Open-Air Museum

Award
2025 Kagawa Prefectural Cultural Arts Award
2005 An excellent prize of the 34th Nakahara Teijiro Award

https://yasuitomotaka.com/