Okubo Saya creates paintings in which two separate elements coexist: a symbolic image expressed as outlines, and an abstract, undulating image with a sense of materiality. Her work is composed of various layers, including a polished acrylic paint base, three-dimensional layers of oil paints, lines cut from drawings of various parts and poses of the human body and more. The exhibition will feature more than a dozen new paintings inspired by Alfred Tennyson’s poetry.
On the Artwork Sale
All of the exhibited artworks will be on sale. If interested in purchasing, please inform the staff on site during the period below.
Period: Friday, August 19 - Tuesday, August 25, 2022
Hours: 12:00-20:00
Venue: Roppongi Hills A/D Gallery (3F, Roppongi Hills West Walk)
* The intent of purchase could be made known only at the venue, and won’t be accepted via phone/e-mail.
* If there are multiple offers for a particular work, a lottery drawing will determine the buyer.
2022
Acrylic and oil on canvas
1,620 x 1,303 mm
2022
Acrylic and oil on canvas
455 x 380 mm
2022
Acrylic and oil on canvas
455 x 530 mm
Okubo Saya
1992 Born in Fukuoka, Japan
2015 Received BFA in Oil Painting, Kyoto University of Art and Design
2017 Completed Master’s in Oil Painting, Completed Master’s in Oil Painting
Currently lives and works in Kyoto.
Solo Exhibitions
- 2018
- a doubtful reply, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo
- 2020
- They, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo
- 2022
- We are defenseless. / We are aggressive., Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Contemporary Gallery, Tokyo
Group Exhibitions
- 2015
- HERE I AM KUAD x TUNA Exchange Exhibition, Na pai Art Gallery, Taiwan
HOP2015, Galerie Aube, Kyoto
Kyoto University of Art and Design Degree Show 2014, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Kyoto - 2016
- movement 2016 (1st movement), ARTZONE, Kyoto
SPERT2016, Galerie Aube, Kyoto - 2017
- NEWSPACE, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo
The 4th CAF Award - Winning Award Exhibition, Daikanyama Hillside Forum, Tokyo
Art Students Exhibition 2017, SEZON ART GALLERY, Tokyo
Kyoto University of Art and Design Master’s Degree Show 2016, Kyoto University of Art and Design Galerie Aube, Kyoto - 2019
- Island with ONI, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo
- 2020
- 10TH, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo
Viewing Room Exhibition, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo - 2021
- Viewing Room Exhibition, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo
- 2022
- SPRING SHOW, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo
Award
- 2017
- The 4th CAF Award, Shiraishi Masami Award
Support
- WAITINGROOM
I often saw the spines of Agatha Christie’s books as a child. I recall that one of those books had a title that quoted a Tennyson’s poem. In that poem, inside the tower, the Lady of Shallot sees the world through a mirror.
Believing in a curse that she heard from who knows where, she weaves her loom alone. I paint in my studio while reflecting on what I have done. Not that anyone has ever told me to do so, but little by little I am covering my tracks. The left and right body displaced, movement displaced, and perception displaced. I hold a pen in both my left and right hands, and make a drawing in contrast. While gradually breaking down the outlines, I create the same, yet different image. I have cut my fingertips on a cracked screen as I look at the world through my display. The pain separates me on this side from the other side. My tableau, with its somewhat vanished traces, resembles both the cloth woven by the Lady of Shalott and the cracked mirror, I think.
Okubo Saya