Women in Abstraction: Landscape

Mio Ito, Orange, 2025, Oil on canvas, 350 x 270 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and GALLERY HAYASHI + ART BRIDGE.

 

GALLERY HAYASHI + ART BRIDGE is delighted to announce the group exhibition Women in Abstraction: Landscape. This exhibition spotlights female artists who work in abstract painting. This second edition of the series takes landscape as its sub-theme and will showcase works by three artists: Mio Ito, Momoka Ota, and Yukari Suematsu. The exhibition will run from Saturday, 18 October 2025 to Saturday, 15 November 2025.

The opening reception will be held on 18 October from 6 – 8 pm.

Globally, the abstract expression of women artists is undergoing a significant re-evaluation and repositioning. This exhibition, Women in Abstraction, contributes to this major trend, specifically by highlighting the work of contemporary Japanese female abstract expressionists in its second instalment. Following an initial focus on the diversity of abstraction, this edition turns to the theme of landscape. While landscape historically required an objective view of the external world, abstract painting liberates the genre, allowing artists to project their introspective consciousness, memories, and personal relationships onto the subject. Our three featured artists challenge traditional perspectives, revealing new possibilities for the landscape motif through their distinct approaches to abstraction.

Mio Ito attempts to capture fleeting moments and the ever-changing nature of the view within her work. She sees painting as a device that can preserve a moment of landscape, allowing it to be recalled at any time, even though the actual scenery inevitably changes. Ito’s process is characterised by layering colours multiple times and then deliberately scraping or wiping them away to bring the underlying colours and textures to the surface. The past brushstrokes and colours that emerge on the canvas through the repetition of ‘painting’ and ‘erasing’ represent a temporal depth, prompting the viewer to recall the sequence of events that led to the specific moment of landscape Ito witnessed.

Momoka Ota takes the mountains she sees in her daily life as her subject. Harnessing the heavy, material quality of oil paint, she conveys the overwhelming presence she feels from these mountains onto the canvas. Her approach is not merely about tracing their contours; it’s an effort to capture the mountain’s inherent atmosphere, alongside the temperature and wind of the current season. Ota’s works possess a striking power that allows viewers to look beyond the visible landscape and imagine the trees and the human activity nestled within.

Yukari Suematsu creates abstract paintings inspired by nature and urban landscapes. She employs acrylics, using blurring and staining techniques that recall Colour Field Painting pioneers like Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler. Her compositions also integrate a Japanese aesthetic through the effective use of negative space. Suematsu’s work aims to generate an experiential space prompting the viewer to confront themselves, society, and the times.

In “Women in Abstraction: Landscape”, Mio Ito, Momoka Ota, and Yukari Suematsu each expand the potential of abstract painting through their individual perspectives and techniques, unified by the common subject of landscape. We invite you to view these depictions of landscape, realised through the delicate yet powerful sensibilities of these artists living in the present day.

 

Momoka Ota, Dream (See it in the morning), 2025, Oil on canvas, 910 x 727 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and GALLERY HAYASHI + ART BRIDGE.

Yukari Suematsu, Lives Unseen, 2025, Acrylic on canvas, 1167 x 910 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and GALLERY HAYASHI + ART BRIDGE.

 

WEB     INSTAGRAM