21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

1. Reality and Fiction: A Critique of and Lorging for Modernity

Pei-Shih Tu
Born 1981 in Miaoli, Taiwan ; lives and works in Taipei.

Tu is known for works that combine animation and collage, questioning "history" and "truth" as entities that lie between reality and fiction. In her videos, seemingly innocent and colorful idyllic scenes unfold, but in fact they address historical events and actual people, telling true stories of violence and destruction. Her style, which ironically addresses issues of colonialism and the power of global capitalism in contemporary society under a veneer of vibrant, euphoric colors, has garnered international acclaim.

Sachiko Kazama
Born 1972 in Tokyo, where she lives and works.

Sachiko Kazama primarily produces black woodcut prints, which trace the roots of present-day phenomena back to the past while evoking premonitions of the looming shadows of the future. Her prints bring together a variety of motifs within a single frame, adopting an absurd, manga-like style. Though working exclusively in black, she skillfully uses variations in tone and sharp chisel-carved lines to depict provocative themes. Kazama’s art seeks to capture moments when the frequently nightmarish realities of contemporary society and history appear comical or absurd. This reflects her conscious self-positioning as an observer of society rather than a direct participant. While her works are fictional, they are grounded in thorough independent research, including the study of antiquarian books. By unearthing dark undercurrents of history and reality, she exposes truth within lies and draws out lies from truth.

Ebosi Yuasa
Born 1983 in Chiba, Japan, where he lives and works.

The artist graduated from the Faculty of Economics at Toyo University in 2005 and completed a Diploma in Painting at Toyo Institute of Art & Design in 2008. Around the age of 34, he conceived the idea that if he had been born earlier, he might have created different kinds of works. With this in mind, he began painting in the guise of a fictitious, third- rate Taisho-era (1912-1926) painter named Yebosi Yuasa. He integrates his paintings into historical narratives, and blends them with the imaginary Yuasa's career history and works, so that these paradigms are continuously updated as new works are created. The creation of the fictional Yuasa not only leads to the output of paintings, but also aims to rewrite history itself.

2. Women and Mythology: Colonized Lands

Kei Imazu
Born 1980 in Yamaguchi Prefecture; lives and works in Bandung, Indonesia

Kei Imazu produces her works by collecting images from media sources such as the internet and digital archives, digitally processing and composing them, and then painting them in oil on canvas based on those digital drafts.
In recent years, her work has shifted toward themes based on her research into urban development and environmental pollution in Indonesia, where she lives and works. These works are grounded in the realities she has encountered in her daily life there. At the same time, Imazu does not simply portray these problems directly or literally, but weaves together a wide range of archival images on the canvas, layering multiple timelines – Indonesian history and mythology, the evolution and extinction of ecosystems – to create works with more universal resonance. Her paintings, in which environmental issues, ecofeminism, mythology, history, and politics coexist on a single plane, emerge from a process in which vast streams of imagery and information are filtered through the body of the artist.

Citra Sasmita
Born 1990 in Bali, Indonesia; lives and works in Singaraja, Bali

Citra Sasmita is a contemporary artist from Bali whose work challenges myths and misconceptions surrounding Balinese art and culture. She critically examines the status of women within social hierarchies and aims to subvert normative gender concepts. Her compositions, featuring female figures intertwined with various elements of nature, are rendered in a visual language rooted in the Kamasan style of Balinese painting, which she has reinterpreted and expanded through her own practice. While rooted in mythological thought that includes both Hindu and uniquely Balinese references, these scenes also reflect a contemporary process of envisioning powerful secular myths for a post-patriarchal future.

3. Proliferating Images

Wilhelm Sasnal
Born 1972 in Tarnów, Poland ; lives and works in Kraków.

Wilhelm Sasnal studied architecture for two years, starting in 1992, at Tadeusz Kościuszko University of Technology in Krakow, then shifted to painting, graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in 1999. The subjects of his paintings are many and varied, including everyday objects, historical figures, his own photographs of landscapes, and snapshots of friends and family, as well as images derived from the internet and mass media. His wide-ranging and stylistically diverse work reflects an array of social, political, and cultural themes, particularly a consistent interest in history, with some works referencing the Holocaust. He typically completes works swiftly, with a straightforward and succinct approach that does not convey the passage of time. In addition to painting, Sasnal is also known for photography and video art.

Luc Tuymans
Born 1958 in Mortsel, Belgium; lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium

Luc Tuymans conducts a measured exploration of the dynamics of images, questioning contemporary society by exposing the moral constructs that underlie it. His work is characterized by a distilled mode of expression, using only paint and canvas to depict carefully selected subjects while simultaneously demonstrating the powerful communicative potential of images and their ability to distort and conceal. He mines images from pre-existing sources, such as portraits of celebrities, iconic symbols, and scenes from popular television and film, selecting each with critical intent and considering its historical and regional context. His distinctive pale palette emphasizes the images’ status as replicas, deeply engaging with the instability of images and the ambiguous relationship between memory and history.

4. History as Medium

Anselm Kiefer
Born 1945 in Donaueschingen, Germany; lives and works in Paris, France

One of the most prominent postwar German artists, Anselm Kiefer is known for his monumental canvases that incorporate materials such as sand, straw, and lead, and address themes including German history, Nazism, the world wars, Richard Wagner, Greek mythology, the Bible, and the Kabbalah.
Kiefer studied law at university before turning to art and was in contact with Joseh Benys during his studies. In 1969, he took photgraphs of himself mockingly making the Nazi salute in vorious European locations. This caused a great deal of controversy. In “Operation Sea Lion” works, he focused on the Nazis’ reckless plan to invade Britain, deliberately evoking Germany’s dark past to provoke reflection in the present. At the same time, by giving his works titles drawn from Norse mythology, Greek mythology, and the Old Testament, he leads them into the realm of myth. The powerful material presence of the extraordinarily diverse substances Kiefer employs, masterfully integrated with his profound themes, generates a powerful impact. His formats are also widely varied, including large-scale installations. Kiefer’s deeply philosophical work urges viewers to confront the fundamental nature of humanity and reflect on existential questions.

Gerhard Richter
Born 1932 in Dresden, Germany ; lives and works in Cologne.

Gerhard Richter received his art education under the former East German regime, but was strongly influenced by abstract expressionism which he encountered during a trip to West Germany and moved to Düsseldorf six months before the Berlin Wall was erected. In 1962 he unveiled Table, which was based on a newspaper photograph. Since then the overriding theme of his work has been 'Schein' (illusion, appearance, semblance), which he interprets as the foundation reflecting all existence, and he has continually crossed the boundaries between visibility and invisibility, photographs and paintings, reality and fabrication as part of his pursuit of 'seeing,' while at the same time applying his masterful painting technique to work in a variety of different styles.

5. The Refusal of Time

William Kentridge
Born 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he lives and works

After graduating from theater school, William Kentridge spent the 1970s and 1980s working in theater and television production. In the 1990s, around the time apartheid was abolished in South Africa, he gained attention for his live theater productions and poetic black-and-white stopmotion animations developed from charcoal drawings. Since 2000, Kentridge has continued to evolve his distinctive practice, integrating his love of film and theater into works composed of video, music, text, and sculptural objects. He is known for complex, emotionally charged, multilayered installations that evoke the atmosphere of theatrical performance.
The five-channel video installation The Refusal of Time, featured in this exhibition, is a 30-minute meditation on time and space, the complex legacies of colonialism and industrialization, and the artist’s own intellectual engagement with these themes.

6. Slumbering Memories of The City

Tomoya Matsuzaki
Born 1977 in Fukuoka Prefecture; lives and works in London, UK

Tomoya Matsuzaki is a painter based in both London and Tokyo. He works on distinctive supports made from jesmonite, a water-based resin. His canvases resembling stone slabs are pierced with holes, and abstract motifs unfold across their thickly textured planes. In addition to painting, Matsuzaki investigates the elements that shape landscapes through activities such as foraging wild plants and hosting communal meals, with a focus on the environment and ecosystems. His remarkably multifaceted practice also includes organizing self-curated exhibitions and launching project spaces.

Yu Nishimura
Born 1982 in Kanagawa Prefecture; lives and works in Tokyo

Yu Nishimura constructs landscapes reflecting his own perceptions, layering fragments of everyday scenes, occurrences, and personal memories within a single canvas. Starting from a single motif, he combines spontaneously emerging images, leaving areas unfinished or layering imagery to capture shifts and developments in his thought process. His technique of rapidly applying paint introduces distorted and blurred contours, imparting a sense of movement and the passage of time while simultaneously transforming the motifs themselves. In a world inundated with images, Nishimura turns to the classical medium of painting and explores its potential to convey the atmosphere of an era in which the boundary between the real and the unreal has become uncertain.

7. The Time of Existence

Sam Falls
Born 1984 in Vermont, USA; lives and works in Los Angeles

Sam Falls engages deeply with the basic principles of photography – time, expression, exposure – producing works that bridge a range of artistic media and forge connections between artist, subject, and viewer. Created in dialogue with nature and the environment, his works are imbued with a distinct sense of the places where they were made while also conveying a pervasive awareness of mortality. While showing deep respect for art history, Falls empathetically blurs the lines between artistic media and methods, drawing inspiration from sources as varied as modern dance, minimalist painting, conceptual photography, and land art. His practice ultimately returns to the essence of art, evoking natural rhythms and the ephemerality of life.

Aki Kondo
Born 1987 in Hokkaido; lives and works in Yamagata Prefecture

Aki Kondo conveys hope and compassion for all living beings through her vivid colors and dynamic brushwork. For Kondo, who believes that “to paint is to live,” making art is both a way to render visible the world she wants to see and a process of self-discovery. Her work extends beyond canvas and panels, expanding freely into three-dimensional forms and across entire spaces including walls and ceilings. Kondo’s practice also spans other disciplines, and in her short film HIKARI she served as writer, director, and producer, blending live-action footage with approximately 14,000 frames of oil-painted animation.

8. Somewhere, Not Here

Asako Fujikura
Born 1992 in Saitama Prefecture; lives and works in Tokyo

Asako Fujikura primarily works with computer-generated 3D animation, focusing on infrastructure that pervades urban and suburban spaces and the depth of the landscapes that emerge around it. In recent years, she has explored spatial expressions that highlight the dynamic flow of logistics on reclaimed land and the emergence of gardens in urban settings. Recent exhibitions include Machine Love: Video Game, AI and Contemporary Art (Mori Art Museum, 2025) and In-Between – A Future with Generative AI (The Japan Pavilion at the 19th Venice Biennale of Architecture, 2025).

9. Layers of Accumulated Memories and the Body

Yusuke Asai
Born 1981 in Tokyo, where he lives and works

Yusuke Asai works freely in all manner of spaces using everyday materials such as soil, water, and masking tape. The scale of his work varies widely in response to its surroundings, ranging from tiny drawings on the backs of travel tickets and coasters to monumental murals that fill entire rooms.
Asai’s work can be broadly categorized into three main series. His Mud Paintings are made with soil and water collected from specific locations, the White Line series is produced by applying a burner to heat-adhesive road marking sheets used on asphalt, and the works in Masking Plant are drawn with waterproof markers on masking tape. Expanding beyond solo studio work, he also carries out large-scale outdoor projects in collaboration with friends, volunteers, and local communities. Embracing change and the joy of growth, his process unfolds dynamically as if cultivating the wildness that is missing, yet needed, in urban life.