Events
【Shinsaibashi】Kansai Art Annual 2025「CO」
We are pleased to present Kansai Art Annual 2025, a new platform for showcasing and experiencing the work of emerging artists with ties to the Kansai region. This exhibition is a cultural initiative launched through a partnership between the Association for the Promotion of Contemporary Art in Japan (APCA), which has run the contemporary art fair Art Osaka in Osaka for over 20 years, and Shinsaibashi PARCO, a long-time supporter of cultural innovation with a track record of collaborations with up-and-coming creators.
Kansai is home to a diverse range of distinctive galleries, each serving as a platform for contemporary art and providing opportunities for artists to hone their unique forms of expression. This exhibition features a selection of leading galleries in the region and their standout artists, whose works reflect the zeitgeist and come together to produce a vibrant venue.
Since its opening, Shinsaibashi PARCO, which serves as the exhibition venue, has transcended the traditional role of a commercial facility, continuously generating new cultural value through advertising and creative initiatives. Underlying these efforts is a spirit of collaboration with emerging creators, keeping Shinsaibashi PARCO consistently at the forefront of the times.
In this inaugural edition, titled CO, the exhibition presents a curated selection of exceptional galleries, primarily located in the Shinsaibashi PARCO area, and up-and-coming artists. The title CO signifies collaboration, symbolizing partnerships not only between artists and galleries, but also among the broader network of diverse players who underpin contemporary culture. Our hope is that this exhibition provides all visitors with opportunities to make new connections with contemporary art and gain fresh new perspectives.
Artists:
Atsuchi Tomoko, Okamoto Akira, Kamide Ken, Kikuchi Kazuaki, Kurimune Misato, Miyata Sayaka, U-die
Dates: May 23 (Fri)—June 22 (Sun) 10:00—20:00 (Last Day: —18:00)
Venue: Shinsaibashi PARCO 9F EVENT SPACE
Free Admission
Organizer: Association for the Promotion of Contemporary Art in Japan
Co-organizer: Shinsaibashi PARCO
Cooperation: Marco Gallery, +1art, TEZUKAYAMA GALLERY, Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, FINCH ARTS
Grant: Osaka Prefectural Fund for The Enhancement of Cultural Activities
= Related Events =
Talk Program: “Artists’ Careers and Gallerists’ Roles / Potential of the Shinsaibashi Area”
Date & Time: Saturday, May 24, 15:00–17:00
Venue: Exhibition venue
Speakers: Okada Shinpei (Tezukayama Gallery), Komoda Toshimitsu (Marco Gallery), Atsuchi Tomoko (exhibiting artist), Okamoto Akira (exhibiting artist)
Moderator: Sakuraoka Satoshi (APCA Committee Member, Finch Arts)
Art Stamp Rally
A special stamp rally using printed materials will be held in collaboration with the exhibition venue, nearby galleries, and Art Osaka 2025.
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Atsuchi Tomoko
Born in Kyoto in 1984. Completed the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts, in 2010. Atsuchi creates pictorial spaces that translate the world unfolding before the eyes into painting, an experience that cannot be fully captured through clear-cut, rational systems such as linear or one-point perspective. By incorporating multiple vanishing points and light sources into a single work, she constructs a world that rises like a “single wall” in which different times and spaces are interwoven. In recent years, she has turned to more introspective subjects derived from both within and outside the self, including landscapes encountered while traveling, casually taken photographs, and personal memories, emotions, and reflections.
Recent exhibitions include Art Collaboration Kyoto (Kyoto International Conference Center, Kyoto, 2023), 3cm and 3km – Looking at the opposite shore – by Tomoko Atsuchi and Yuuka Ishii. (Tezukayama Gallery, Osaka, 2023), solo exhibition Floating House (Kamogawa Arts & Kitchen, Kyoto, 2022), the Kiyosu City 10th Haruhi Painting Triennale (Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum, Aichi, 2021), solo exhibition Ashamed Painting (Tezukayama Gallery, Osaka, 2020), and Kobe Rokko Meets Art 2018 (Rokko Mountain summit area, Hyogo).
Courtesy of TEZUKAYAMA GALLERY
Okamoto Akira
Born in Osaka in 1981. Graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at Osaka University of Arts in 2004. Okamoto consistently produces paintings that resemble optical experiments using his original technique of the “photo brush.” While working with photography as a medium, he does not use a camera. Instead, by harnessing the inherent properties of photographic materials (film and photographic paper) that take on color when exposed to light, he paints in complete darkness, “recording” light as color and form. By replacing the photographic development process with the act of painting, the artist explores new possibilities in both photographic materials and painterly expression.
Recent exhibitions include solo exhibition photōs (Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Osaka, 2025), solo exhibition Airglow (Gallery Tsubaki, Tokyo, 2023), Arima Art Night (Arima Onsen, Hyogo, 2020), and solo exhibition RAUM I (Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Osaka, 2019).
Courtesy of Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery
Kamide Ken
Born in the United States in 1997. Completed the master’s program in the Department of Design at Tokyo University of the Arts. Influenced by American pop culture such as toys and comics from his childhood, marked by mass appeal and a consumer mentality, Kamide produces works that shed light on hidden social issues from an intelligent and humorous critical perspective by combining the seemingly contradictory elements of function and decoration.
Exhibitions include Vinyls exhibition (Oil Gallery by Bijutsu Techo, Tokyo, 2024), Meet Your Art Festival 2024: New Era (Tennoz Canal Area, Tokyo, 2024), and solo exhibition FEAST OOPARTS (Marco Gallery, Osaka, 2023).
FRP, resin, acrylic, wood 2023
Courtesy of Marco Gallery
Kikuchi Kazuaki
Born in Kyoto in 1993. Completed graduate studies at Kyoto City University of Arts in 2018. Kikuchi constructs machines that perform tasks with excessive effort and disproportionately minimal results, and personally operates them to produce images based on masterpieces from art history. Made of aluminum and stainless steel, the machines can be too hefty for one adult to carry, and while they resemble industrial equipment, they demand grueling and inefficient manual labor. For example, Draw a Circle II – Machine requires approximately 15,000 turns of a handle to complete a single circle. In other words, even with sustained effort, only a few circles can be drawn in a day. In a society that values results and efficiency, the artist deliberately makes these absurd, almost childlike actions into the substance of his work.
Awards include the Grand Prix at LUMINE meets ART AWARD 2020–2021 (2021) and the Excellence Award at Kyoto Art for Tomorrow 2020.
Courtesy of +1art
Kurimune Misato
Born in Hyogo 1988. Completed an M.A. in Printmaking at the Graduate School of Arts, Kyoto Seika University in 2013. Through photography-based lenticular works and mixed media, Kurimune explores the essence of perceptual experience and reality in modern society.
Solo exhibitions include The Wheel of Existence (Concept Store See?, Hyogo, 2023), You May Be in This World. Or You May Not Be. (Tezukayama Gallery, Osaka, 2021), Still Remained (Tezukayama Gallery, Osaka, 2018), Return to Reason from Extremes Under the Skin (Tezukayama Gallery, Osaka, 2016), and Flash⇆Infinity (eN arts, Kyoto, 2015). Other exhibitions include Vietnam International Artfair 2024 (Hotel Nikko Saigon, Vietnam), Tokyo Art Book Fair 2024 (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo), and “Interactions” Curated by Tomoko Sawada (Laugh & Peace Art Gallery, Osaka, 2024).
Courtesy of TEZUKAYAMA GALLERY
Miyata Sayaka
Born in Kyoto in 1985. Received an MFA in 2012 from Kyoto University of Art and Design, focusing on textiles. Majoring in Textile Arts at university led to the development of a practice grounded in unique techniques of needlework and machine embroidery. In the WARP series, layers of thread emerge as intentional glitches created with a sewing machine. In the KNOTS series, embroidery is produced without fabric as a support material. Through these diverse embroidery techniques, Miyata’s works represent life forms, origins, and states of evolution, reflecting her interests in how errors can generate new values and frameworks in the world.
Exhibitions include the Sapporo International Art Festival (Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, 2024), solo exhibition Urahara no Ito ha Yosuga (Gifu Collection of Modern Arts, 2022), Kyoto Steam (Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, 2022), and Beyond the Material (The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, 2021). Her numerous awards include the 35th Takashimaya Art Award (2025) and the Kyoto City Best Young Artist Award (2024).
U-die
Born in Saitama Prefecture in 1987. Develops self-created manga into two-dimensional paintings and video works. For example, a painting resembling a portrait of Marilyn Monroe, though no names are mentioned, emerges from a sequential arrangement of 48 pages of a manga, while an image of Princess Diana is formed by assembling individual manga panels like pieces of a puzzle. After extensive reflection on the person serving as the motif, U-die constructs a manga narrative that incorporates various episodes from their lives and the words they left behind. While the process involves complex systems, the artist’s intent – “my greatest wish for viewers to enjoy it” – resonates with many people’s first impressions upon encountering the work.
Silkscreen medium on pigmented ink, crashed glass on paper 2018 ed.30
Courtesy of Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery