MtK Contemporary Art is pleased to announce The "Up_03" exhibition, part of the ARTISTS' FAIR KYOTO SATELLITE 2025 program, will be held from Thursday, February 27, 2025, to Saturday, March 15, 2025.

The exhibition is curated by Kengo Kito, Daisuke Ohba, and Kohei Nawa, collectively known as "Onidaimyo," who teach at Kyoto University of the Arts Graduate School. They have been involved in various projects, including the Artists' Fair Kyoto advisory board, Starbucks Coffee Kyoto BAL, and the gallery spaces at Hotel Anteroom in Kyoto, Naha, and Seoul, introducing the works of emerging artists.

The "Up" exhibition series, which began in 2021, focuses on current graduate students and alumni of the university. This marks the third edition of the exhibition.

Nawa curates for this edition and will showcase the works of six emerging artists creating significant three-dimensional art: Takuma Oue, Shu Ogawara, Taro Komiya, Andrea Samory, Ayami Nagata, and Yuto Yonemura.

Takuma Oue
Born in 2000 in Osaka. Currently enrolled in the Master's program at Kyoto University of the Arts Graduate School, specializing in Oil Painting within the Department of Fine Art and Craft.

Oue's creative process is driven by the idea of making boundaries and a nest-like structure. This mindset is essential for maintaining the physical outline of his body. Through the process of experimenting with thoughts on how to verify this outline, and by performing in unstable states during painting or performances, the artist aims to maintain and make the physical body’s outline more flexible. Major exhibitions include “Jyogyo Zanmai” (A-LAB, Hyogo, 2024), “Rabbit, Hummingbird, Homunculus -How to Create a New Horizon” (MEDIA SHOP gallery II, Kyoto, 2023), and “ARTISTS' FAIR KYOTO 2024” (Kyoto National Museum Meiji Koto-kan, Kyoto, 2024).

Shu Ogasawara
Born in 1985 in Hyogo. Graduated from the Sculpture Course of the Department of Fine Arts and Crafts, Kyoto University of Art and Design, in 2008. Through the act of carving stone, Ogasawara approaches his life and experiences as equal to the myths passed down through the ages, supplementing something like faith and searching for a modern equivalent of Greek sculpture or stone Buddha figures. Major group exhibitions include "Genbi Doko Demo Kikkou"(2018), "Symbolizing the Problem – Sculpture, Body, Masculinity”(Hotel Anteroom Kyoto gallery9.5, Kyoto, 2023) and "Omae no tame no///" (Horikawa New Culture Building, Kyoto, 2024). Currently, he incorporates stones, keen on stone Buddha figures and ruins. Major solo exhibitions include "Around 1985" (VOU, Kyoto, 2024) and "Goh Tai Jutsu"(hop ART GALLERY, Osaka, 2022). Currently working in the shared studio “Yamanaka Suplex” in Shiga.

Taro Komiya
Born in 1985 in Kanagawa. Completed the Doctoral program in Arts at Kyoto University of the Arts Graduate School in 2016. Komiya's works, including paintings, photographs, rapidly spinning objects, and space-utilizing trompe-l'œil installations, approach the active nature of "seeing" and the cognitive function of human vision. These works serve as devices to perceive areas that are not recognized. Major solo exhibitions include “Virtual” (MAHO KUBOTA GALLERY, Tokyo, 2024), “The Condition of Holes” (Art Center Ongoing, Tokyo, 2019), and “The Skill of Pen Spinner” (VOU, Kyoto, 2018). Group exhibitions include “VOCA 2023” (Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, 2023), “Basement #01: Gokou no Surikire” (Kyoto Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 2022), and “Soft Territory: The Thin Line of Connection” (Shiga Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, 2021). Currently working in the shared studio “Yamanaka Suplex” in Shiga

Andrea Samory

Born in 1991 in Italy. Earned his MArch  at the Ferrara University of Architecture, Italy. After studying at the University of Tokyo under the supervision of Kengo Kuma. Worked under Kengo Kuma and Associates, and Kohei Nawa’s creative studio Sandwich Inc, Samory opened his sculpture studio in Tokyo in 2021.

Andrea Samory’s approach is based on a post-internet vision of art as the process of materializing virtual images and intangible forces. He uses familiar images, released from their idealized context, to create a mirror for collective fears and expectations towards the future. In doing so, he subverts the role that biological bodies have towards the stereotypical concept of Nature. In his work, the philosophies of Speculative Realism and Assemblage Theory get infused into the genres of Sci-Fi, Body Horror, Cosmic Horror and Magical Realism - a narrative created as a response to nowadays incessant flux of both dystopic and utopic information regarding global society, climate, politics, technology. His vocabulary takes advantage of shiny, soft and colorful materials to attract the viewer into a world of natural corruption and uncannyness - provoking the ambivalent feelings of repulsion and fascination, alienation and familiarity, recognition and corruption. This approach takes inspiration from how virality (both as a biology-related concept and an internet-related concept), and intangible forces in general, shape our everyday lives. The recurring themes of growth, entropy, mythology and human hybris are given shape through the recombination, aggregation, distortion, and assemblage of natural textures and figures. He combines 3d sculpting and 3d printing with SFX and more traditional sculpting techniques, to attract the viewer into a world of natural corruption and uncanniness - provoking the ambivalent feelings of repulsion and fascination, alienation and recognition.

Ayami Nagata
Born in 1997 in Osaka. Graduated from the Master's program in the Department of Fine Art and Craft, Kyoto University of the Arts, specializing in dyeing and weaving, in 2022. Nagata's works incorporate everyday industrial products such as blue sheets, rubber bands, gravels, non-woven fabric, and taut lines, based on the theme of "reframing daily life." Through this process, she invites viewers to reconsider the value of things, focusing on repetitive, body-conscious actions like "knotting" and "weaving," which are simple dyeing techniques. Major solo exhibitions include “Ao o kukuru” (Lights Gallery, Nagoya, 2021). Group exhibitions include “T2 Collection ‘Collecting? Connecting?’” (WHAT MUSEUM, Tokyo, 2024) and “ARTISTS' FAIR KYOTO 2023” ( The Kyoto Shimbun Bldg, Kyoto, 2023).

Yuto Yonemura
Born in 1996 in Osaka. Graduated from the Department of Fine Art and Craft, Kyoto University of Art and Design, specializing in Comprehensive Art, in 2019. Through his interest in overwhelming entities beyond human comprehension and specific individuals encountered in his life, Yonemura creates works using various materials such as clay, stone, and FRP. While narrating unique stories based on physical relationships, he explores the projection of internal emotions like pain, fear, longing, and awe. Major solo exhibitions include “Yuto Yonemura’s Zetsuen People” (EUKARYOTE, Tokyo, 2024), “BAROM (or Several Long Stories)” (Kyoto City Kyocera Museum The Triangle, Kyoto, 2023), and “I (We)” (COHJU Contemporary Art, Kyoto, 2022). Major group exhibitions include “Self-Growing Chimeras” (BnA Alter Museum, Kyoto, 2025), “Tokyo Exhibition” (WHAT CAFE, Tokyo, 2024), and “NSFS/Endless Lorelei” (EUKARYOTE, Tokyo, 2023).