Between Stillness

Wataru Ozu, Face – Kermit the Frog –, 2025, Oil on canvas, 60.6 x 50cm. Courtesy of the Artist and AISHO.

 

AISHO Hong Kong is honoured to announce Japanese artist Wataru Ozu’s first solo exhibition “Between Stillness” in Hong Kong. The show is on view from 5 September to 3 October, 2025.

In this solo exhibition, while reconsidering “Ma（間）” – one of the essential elements in Japanese art – Ozu have painted vanitas motifs known in Western art, such as clocks, fruits, flowers, lobsters, and crabs. By directing consciousness toward the empty spaces and silence that emerge between these elements, the artist contemplates the spaces between objects, between different cultures, and between paintings and viewers.

“For me, ‘Ma’ is not merely empty space. While it serves as a boundary connecting the space of painting with the space where viewers stand, it is also a place that gives breath to this relationship and brings both tension and relaxation to the painting. I understand ‘Ma’ as ‘a state where one can choose whether to paint or not to paint.’ There is a fluctuation in this selection process, and I believe this very fluctuation gives richness to the painting. This perspective of valuing the subtle presence and silence that float in between represents my understanding of Japanese art’s essence and forms the core of this body of work.”

Around 1600 during the Edo period, Japan encountered Western painting while in isolation, causing a significant impact in the local art scene. This influence manifested as “Youfuuga (Western-style painting),” creating a rare phenomenon where Eastern perspectives intersected with Western ways of seeing. Conversely, in mid-19th century Europe, Japonisme spread, and Japanese art’s spatiality and decorative features were embraced as fresh visual experiences. Ozu is strongly drawn to such cultural encounters and overlaps, as well as the differences that arise from them. He believe that by combining different artistic formats and sensibilities, their respective characteristics become more distinct, revealing new possibilities in painting.

In these works, while using Western still life painting as a foundation, Ozu symbolize time and ephemerality through vanitas motifs. Simultaneously, through the perspective of “Ma,” empty spaces and silence emerge between the motifs, creating spaces where different cultural values overlap. By inserting Eastern spatial sensibilities into Western formal structures, the artist aimed to shift both frameworks and pursue new possibilities in pictorial expression.

 

Wataru Ozu, Still Life with Books and Crab, 2025, Oil on canvas, 65.2 x 65.2cm. Courtesy of the Artist and AISHO.

 

Wataru Ozu, Still Life with Ghost and Mirror, 2025, Oil on canvas, 72.7 x 60.6cm. Courtesy of the Artist and AISHO.

 

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