Tokyo International Gallery Group Exhibition "AUN - What Passes, Reflected in the Heart -"

Tokyo International Gallery (Shinagawa/Tennoz) will hold a duo exhibition "AUN - What Passes, Reflected in the Heart -" by Banri Takada and Yuta Takada from July 4, 2026 (Saturday) to August 8, 2026 (Saturday), as part of their ongoing project "AUN." "AUN" began in 2022 as a continuous project to reconsider "exhibitions" through flat collaboration among players. This second exhibition expands the initial perspective of player collaboration within a single exhibition to the entire art world, relaunching as a project aiming to be an entry point for young artists into the art world. This exhibition focuses on the twin artists Banri Takada and Yuta Takada. Both artists use landscapes that remain in their hearts from daily life as motifs. However, what is depicted is less the objective appearance of a landscape and more the subjective experience of encountering that landscape. Even with the same landscape, the perception changes depending on the viewer's feelings and emotions, and the same image is never formed in the heart twice. What they express can be said to be such unique moments. Banri Takada produces landscape paintings with Mount Fuji as a motif. The artist says that while seeing Mount Fuji daily, they felt that the same mountain "always looks different." This was a sensation that the impression varied more due to the artist's transient internal state when viewing Mount Fuji, rather than merely changes in the mountain's appearance due to season or time. On the other hand, Yuta Takada depicts the intimate figures of familiar people. Images capturing momentary gestures and expressions resemble snapshots commonly taken with smartphones. However, unlike digital photos that are consumed as data daily, these images are semi-permanently preserved on canvas, and their permanence rather emphasizes the fleetingness of the moments. Recording and sharing what catches one's eye or emotions that arise in daily life is not uncommon in modern times. When encountering something captivating, taking out a smartphone to photograph it and posting it on social media with text is a very common act. However, most of these images are quickly buried in a vast amount of information, swept away, and forgotten. The act of halting fleeting moments on canvas through the time-consuming technique of oil painting can perhaps be seen as a subtle resistance to the accelerating cycle of consumption and oblivion. Banri Takada 2022 Graduated Hawaiian Mission Academy 2025 Graduated Toyo Art School 2025 Enrolled Otis College of Art and Design Born in America. Developed an interest in art from an early age, growing up playing in the garden of the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. During high school in Hawaii, met and studied under sculptor Karen Lucas, who is also an art therapist. Utilizing lessons learned in Japan and the US, currently active in art production at Otis College of Art and Design, expanding connections further. [Solo Exhibitions] 2024 "Takada Brothers: Twins Exhibition" (GAFU -gallery & space-, Saitama) 2025 "The Beginning" (Akane Gallery, Tokyo) [Group Exhibitions] 2025 "76th Toyo Art School Graduation Exhibition" (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo) 2024 Mural Production Project (Fukuoka) 2024 Kids Art Class Volunteer (Tokyo) 2024 Kids Art Production Workshop (Saitama) 2025 T-shirt Design Production Project (Nagano) =Artist Statement= In this current body of work, Mount Fuji appears to me not merely as a landscape, but as an entity for confronting myself. This mountain, which displays entirely different expressions depending on the location, time, and my mental state at that moment, is an external landscape yet simultaneously a mirror reflecting my inner self. While I have previously incorporated my sensibilities by exaggerating the shapes, colors, and forms of clouds, in this work I take another step forward, attempting an expression more fundamentally linked to emotions and states of mind. Even in the same place, the scenery seen when calm and composed...