Ikiteiru to iu koto – To Live

Ellie Omiya, Joyful Sea and Reggae, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 80.3 x 80.3 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and Tomio Koyama Gallery.

 

The day that Ellie Omiya, who passed away in April 2025, is the day that she would have turned 50.
Starting Friday, November 21st, the Ellie Omiya retrospective exhibition, “To Live,” will be held simultaneously across three venues: Tomio Koyama Gallery Roppongi, DAIKANYAMA GARAGE, and CAPSULE. It will showcase a careful selection of works from the 1,269 paintings, photographs, ceramics, and books she left behind during her lifetime.
We hope you will come and encounter the work of Ellie Omiya.

【Concurrent Exibitions】
Ellie Omiya Retrospective Exhibition “Ikiteiru to iu koto – To Live”
“Tracing the journey of her life and practice through paintings, photographs, books, and more”
DAIKANYAMA GARAGE　1F/2F
November 21-30, 2025
11am-7pm Admission: ¥500 (Free for high school students and younger)

On display on the first floor of DAIKANYAMA GARAGE will be some 30 pieces, focused primarily on her impressive large-scale paintings. Animal art objects greet visitors on the stairs, while the second floor features a recreation of Ellie Omiya’s living space.

Showcased are 39 books published during her lifetime, photographs, and original illustrations from a picture book that are being exhibited for the first time. There will also be a screening of the virtual reality film Frequency, nominated for the Extended Reality (XR) section at the 2023 Venice International Film Festival.

For this retrospective exhibition, we have specially prepared a monograph featuring all 1,269 works (the number of works that have currently been verifiably attributed to her) created by Ellie Omiya throughout her life that we hope visitors will also peruse.
*New merchandise and hard-to-find books are also available for purchase on the first floor.

TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY ROPPONGI
November 21 – 30, 2025
11am-7pm   Open during the exhibition
Admission Free
Opening Reception: 5-7pm, Friday, November 21
complex665 2F, 6-5-24, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-0032　Japan

Ellie Omiya Retrospective Exhibition “Ikiteiru to iu koto – To Live”
“On the Sliding Door Fusuma Paintings and Ceramics That Became Her Final Works”
CAPSULE
November 21-30, 2025
11am-7pm Admission Free

Ellie Omiya’s final solo exhibition was “Let’s go find a paradise: Resort at the temple,” held at the Keishun-in sub-temple within Myoshin-ji in Kyoto in 2024. We hope you will enjoy the ceramic works and 6 sliding door fusuma paintings that were exhibited there, now reimagined as byobu folding screens. These were pieces Omiya wanted to unveil at CAPSULE on her birthday during her lifetime, according to a promise she made to the owner, Mr. Yoshino.

 

Ellie Omiya, Ⅰ Coral Reef and Blue Fish I, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 80.3 x 80.3 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and Tomio Koyama Gallery.

Ellie Omiya, Refrigerator and Woman, 2014, Ink on paper, 11.0 x 13.1 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and Tomio Koyama Gallery.

 

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