Real Women - Through the Passage of Time: MIKI KATO, itabamoe
Ginza New Gallery
2025.04.04 - 04.26
Whitestone Ginza New Gallery is pleased to announce “Real Women - Through the Passage of Time”, a duo exhibition featuring female artists Miki Kato and itabamoe.
The artist Miki Kato depicts traditional Japanese culture, kimono, and historical landscapes through her unique perspective. Her works are inspired by antique kimonos from the Taisho and early Showa periods, incorporating designs that delicately express the freedom and beauty of women. Reflecting Japanese animistic beliefs, her life-affirming, prayer-like art depicts humans, plants, and animals as symbolic beings, with some taking on human forms while others transform into various shapes. In her "100 Views of Tokyo" series, she applies Edo ukiyo-e techniques to depict Tokyo's landscapes in a fable-like manner, weaving a narrative that links history with the future. Her latest works explore the passage of time, expressing changes in landscapes and history, as well as the accumulation of people's wishes. By blending tradition with modernity, her work contributes to the preservation and development of Japanese culture while also reflecting the changes in women's lives throughout the ages, celebrating their beauty and strength.
itabamoe's works aim to reconstruct the visual representations of women shaped in the advertising industry into contemporary art. Transitioning from the organic youth culture of the 90s to the digital age, she presents a new perspective on the "image of women" in contemporary society. While working as an illustrator and contributing to commercial icons, her art strives to go beyond those boundaries. By focusing on the diversity of women’s images shared through social media and digital platforms, she emphasizes the inner charm that radiates, rather than just outward appearance. Her art expresses a "new beauty" that is not bound to gender or societal expectations. The women on her canvases rebel against societal stereotypes, embodying strength and freedom that emanate from within. She combines the clarity of visual language with the ambiguity of art, allowing for layered interpretations. This prompts viewers to reconsider modern values and standards of beauty, offering an opportunity to recognize their own as well.
Miki Kato and itabamoe depict the evolution of the modern image of women, though their approaches are different. Kato expresses the image of women incorporating Japanese culture and historical backgrounds, weaving stories rooted in time and culture. In contrast, itabamoe, takes influence from the digital age, exploring the diverse representations of women found in the world of social media and advertising. Both artists' works resonate with the changes in society and highlight the inner lives of women. We invite you to take this opportunity to explore their pursuit of "real" female imagery and the passage of time they present.
Ginza New Gallery
Tel: +81 (0)3 3574 6161
Fax: +81 (0)3 3574 9430
Opening Hours: 11:00 - 19:00
Closed: Sunday, Monday
Opening Reception
*Artist will be present.
ARTIST
Miki Kato
Born in Saitama, Miki Kato graduated from Joshibi University of Art and Design. After her career as an illustrator, she started really getting into painting with her first solo exhibition produced by Hisashi Tenmyouya in 2012. In contrast to the conventional kimono design, Kato’s portraits of women wear modern and innovative kimonos inspired by the “vintage kimonos” of the Taisho and early Showa era. Their style of wearing is also showy and liberated, expressing not only the visual pleasure but also the attitude and the spirit of independent women. It goes without saying that kimono designs reflect the trends and tastes of each period, her landscapes and cityscapes depicted in the background include implicitly historical buildings or real-existed objects, allowing the viewer to imagine the changes through times besides the human figure. Furthermore, Kato’s works, which underlie epical tradition cultures of Japan, are deeply connected to numerous myths, allegories, and animisms, leading to the cycle of life like reincarnation. In her exquisite setting of the space-time that focuses on the pursuit of “cycle of nature and life”, not only the flow of life and coexistence of old and new, but also the idea of “boundaries” itself such as “ordinary/extraordinary” and “this world/another world” is skillfully blended, while forming a profound viewpoint that is incompatible with her seemingly clear and concrete brushwork.
Currently, she is demonstrating her excellent aesthetics as a designer by creating new kimono in collaboration with long-established kimono manufacturers as well as holding solo and group shows both in and out of Japan.
itabamoe
itabamoe is a contemporary artist based in Tokyo. After graduating from BUNKA Fashion College, she started her career as an apparel designer, then shifted to the advertising industry as an illustrator. She has been active as an artist since 2021.
By incorporating and developing diverse approaches to women’s images fostered in the advertising industry, itabamoe has reconstructed illustration as a subject of contemporary art, and transmitted in real time multifactorial images of “cool women” that changes through the passage of time. The process, in which the buried details of everyday life in the world of advertising becomes the core of subject, fits not only to the socio -cultural tendency of 20th century which redefines marginality (gender/race/third world), but also to the personal trajectory of the artist herself. While posing to reflect the era of social media, in which anyone can play a reading role, the pop as well as well-visualized painting of itabamoe powerfully affirms the briefs inherent in each individual and human excellence that constitutes the way of life.