A visual art exhibition featuring fourteen artists — including eleven Japanese and two Sri Lankan visual artists — was held at the Tokyo Siacca Art Gallery from May 25 to June 1.
A noteworthy trend among the participating artists was the use of mixed media to create paintings, reflecting a continuing fascination with blending materials and methods. This approach remains especially popular among younger generations, who seek to challenge traditional boundaries in visual art.
A critical discussion was held in the gallery with participating artists, focusing on two core themes: the process of art-making and artist intervention. These discussions aimed to “unravel” artistic intent and method — and in doing so, reveal new layers of meaning embedded within the work.
One striking example was ‘ Ready or not ‘ mixed media painting by the female artist Pink. Her piece, titled Hide and Seek, bursts with colour, characters, text, and symbols. At first glance, it suggests a playful, childlike atmosphere, but this vibrant, maximalist aesthetic belies deeper, more complex emotional undertones. The work invites viewers to navigate its joyful chaos and uncover hidden layers of identity, memory, and narrative.
‘Light to darkness ‘sculptural work created Ceramic and natural wood branchers ,offered a more subdued and contemplative tone. The artist Toshikazu Kanai explored the tension between the organic and manmade hard medium through an ambiguous form that hovers between flora and flesh. Branch-like limbs erupt from a shapeless base, evoking a body in transformation. Through biomorphic abstraction, the sculpture meditates on mutation, hybridity, and the delicate boundaries between nature and technology in a time of growing environmental and biological instability.
The participant were: Akiko Siacca, Tetsuo Kimura, Akiko Iga, Kengo Watanabe, West Otake, Hikaru Yazawa, Masayoshi Otake, Toshikazu Kanai, Kiyoko Ogino, Sonosuke Yukichika, Ikuko Ozaki, Yosuke Ueda, Hiroko Tamura, Kaoru Okuda, YUKI pink, Nirmini Bandara and Kingsley Gunatillake.
