New Contemporary Art Gallery 'MOVO GALLERY' to Open in Jinbocho: Duo Exhibition by Haruna Shinagawa and Tomo Kihara to Mark Grand Opening

General Incorporated Association MOVO (Representative: Nagisa Baba) will open 'MOVO GALLERY,' a gallery focused on contemporary art, in Jinbocho in May 2026.

As the gallery's inaugural exhibition, a duo show by contemporary artist Haruna Shinagawa and media artist/game creator Tomo Kihara will be held from Saturday, May 2, 2026, to Wednesday, May 13, 2026.

MOVO GALLERY aims to create a space for contemporary art combined with an on-site bar and library. By encouraging communication among visitors over drinks at the bar and providing access to books on contemporary art and various research fields in the library, the gallery seeks to foster a deeper understanding of art.

Exhibition Concept: 'もしも -What if-'

Art often serves as a mirror reflecting our society and humanity. Today, we live in a society where predictions are becoming increasingly sophisticated due to the development of Large Language Models (AI). In such an era, how does the meaning of considering 'multiple possible alternative possibilities' or randomness that fall outside of predictions change?

This inaugural exhibition will feature Tomo Kihara's 'The Game of Possible Lives,' where players experience and make choices in the lives of others generated based on Japanese government statistical data. It will also showcase paintings by contemporary artist Haruna Shinagawa, who creates diverse landscapes and memories in the minds of viewers by peeling off films of paint applied to the canvas.

Kihara describes his work, saying, 'The world generated by Large Language Models built from vast amounts of social text data becomes a reflection of real society, including absurdity and bias, functioning as an "experiential archive" of what it means to live in this era.' Shinagawa views her canvases as windows that separate from her own intentions and reflect the viewer's images, questioning the meaning of painting expressions in a modern world overflowing with various visual media.

While their formats differ significantly, both artists' works peel away the premise of 'how things should be' to reveal alternative images, lives, and landscapes hidden beneath. We hope this exhibition will provide visitors with an opportunity to ponder various 'what if' scenarios.

Participating Artists:

Haruna Shinagawa
Born in Tokyo in 1995. Graduated from Tokyo Zokei University in 2017 with a degree in Painting. Based primarily in Japan and Mexico. She creates using a unique technique of peeling off parts of paint films from the canvas using acrylic paint and peelable polyethylene cloth, creating three-dimensional expressions. In her representative series 'Peel off the paint,' she pursues expressions where the canvas is a 'window' and the paint is a 'curtain,' evoking diverse scenes within the viewer.

Tomo Kihara
Born in Kyoto in 1994. Artist and game creator. He creates experimental games and urban installations under the theme of 'play that draws out new questions.' He provides platforms for exploring how new technologies like AI transform our society and thinking. After graduating from Keio University, he completed a Master's in Interaction Design at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He has collaborated with Waag Futurelab in Amsterdam and the Mozilla Foundation in the US on projects focused on the social impact of AI.