Yuka Mori's New Solo Exhibition "Unraveling Gift" to be Held at Gallery Butaiura from Friday, June 5, 2026. Exploring the Boundary Between Body and Environment with Japanese Painting Techniques.

Yuka Mori "Receiving" 2026, wooden panel, Japanese paper, Japanese painting pigments Photo by Yasushi Ichikawa

The Chain Museum Inc. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Masamichi Toyama; hereinafter "The Chain Museum") will hold a solo exhibition by artist Yuka Mori, "Unraveling Gift," at "Gallery Butaiura" (located in Azabudai Hills), which it operates, from Friday, June 5, 2026, to Sunday, July 5, 2026.

*Exhibited works will be sold exclusively on ArtSticker. For those who wish to receive a price list before the exhibition, please contact us here.

*A reservation-only reception is scheduled to be held from 18:00 on Friday, June 5, 2026. (Participation is free, reservations can be made here)

Exhibition details here

Organizer's Comment

Gallery Butaiura will host Yuka Mori's solo exhibition "Unraveling Gift."

Figures and plants depicted with flowing contours and melting colors intertwine, sometimes merging with the background, appearing as one on the canvas. Mori, who grew up surrounded by rich nature since childhood, has depicted plants and people around her using Japanese painting techniques learned at university. From her experience of feeling a sense of security and comfort when imagining the blurring and mixing of the body, which separates oneself from the surrounding world, she began to perceive 'inside and outside,' 'self and others,' 'humans and nature' not as dichotomies but as a single fluid. Having experience in dance, she developed a strong interest in the body, and this perspective extends not only to the human body but also to the physicality of plants and space.

In this solo exhibition, focusing on the kitchen space of Gallery Butaiura, new works are exhibited that scatter considerations about the act of eating and the body. Ingestion is the act of taking external things into the body, and the kitchen, where food is prepared, can be said to be a part of the body's organs. The title of the exhibition, "Unraveling," means that something decomposes and transforms into something else, and the concept of "Gift" is indispensable for the existence of others. Through the works, a series of life's circulation emerges: decomposing others and taking them into oneself, and then being taken in by others.

From the organic lines and soft tones, the energy of life is conveyed quietly yet vividly. Please come and feel the warmth of Mori's paintings at the venue.

Yuka Mori "Giving" 2026, wooden panel, Japanese paper, Japanese painting pigments Photo by Yasushi Ichikawa Yuka Mori "Drawing Unraveling" 2026, Japanese paper, ink

Artist Statement

For this exhibition at Gallery Butaiura, I thought about eating in this space, which has an attached dining area.

Anpanman, who lets you eat his face, Guri and Gura's castella, Jan Švankmajer's FOOD, all come to mind.

Come to think of it, I didn't like eating much when I was little, but now I do.

In almost all my previous works, the main focus has been on exploring the boundary between the body and the environment, and from that, I have shaped beings that are between humans and plants, consciously perceiving the body more ambiguously and flexibly.

This stems from my own slight claustrophobia, feeling my body like a prison.

The act of eating blurs the inside and outside.

What was outside is taken inside, some parts become part of the inside, and some parts are expelled back outside.

Was the apple I ate outside before I ate it, or was it inside even before it was eaten?

Where does the inside begin, and where does the outside begin? It's not clear at all.

Come to think of it, when I was little, my brother drew a circle with a single line and asked me, "What do you think this is?"

I didn't know, and when I asked for the answer, I think it was "a fish that swallowed its own body whole."

Is the entire universe the inside for that fish?

Food is truly a grand work woven over time by many elements (sea, soil, microbes, plants, light, humans, etc.).

An apple apparently takes about 5 years from seedling to fruit.

If you were to list all the elements involved in growing, harvesting, cooking, and serving it on a plate, like movie credits,

I think it would be a long, never-ending credit roll.

We eat such a masterpiece every day, alone or with others, or give it away.

A long journey begins as it passes through our bodies, unravels, and transforms into another form.

Thinking about such things, when I first read it...