TEZUKAYAMA GALLERY is pleased to present “Arc”, a solo exhibition by Akiko Sumiyoshi.

Born in Chiba Prefecture in 1981, Sumiyoshi graduated from Bunsei University of Art and began her career as an artist in 2005. Since then, she has continued to present her work.

Sumiyoshi has developed a distinctive and coherent world populated by endearing animals inhabiting forest landscapes, expressed through a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, and installation. While the animals she depicts appear soft, gentle, and charming, their creation is underpinned by the artist’s highly disciplined and rigorous approach to making. Through extensive research using reference materials and zoological texts, and by closely studying the physical structures and behaviors of animals, Sumiyoshi creates new, imaginary creatures imbued with a vivid sense of vitality.

This exhibition marks Sumiyoshi’s first presentation at TEZUKAYAMA GALLERY in approximately three years and revisits a fundamental theme that has long underpinned her practice, “the reconstruction of inner landscapes”. Sumiyoshi continually absorbs the myriad events and impressions of everyday life, accumulating them as condensed “masses” that are gradually transformed into works of art. Her creative process extends beyond mere repetition, encompassing the concept of “circulating time.” Just as each day traces a circle distinct from the day before, the accumulation and subtle transformation of time itself becomes a central subject of her work.

The Parade series (seven works in total) presented in this exhibition embodies the themes of “circulation” and “spatiality” that Sumiyoshi has consistently explored throughout her career. In addition, twelve new works inspired by the Chinese zodiac further deepen her inquiry into universal notions of “division” and “continuity” within life.

We sincerely invite you to take this opportunity to experience the exhibition.

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Artist Statement

Tracing time, tracing place, tracing a path toward something new
It is to walk along one broad, continuous road.
Sometimes at its edge, sometimes at its center
Perhaps slowly winding and meandering, or suddenly racing straight ahead.

Along this ongoing path, there may be moments when I suddenly stop,
moments that can feel as if they last forever.

When I begin to move again, whether the reason I stopped was a tiny stone or a towering cliff, it remains the same reason for pausing.

Time and again, I am blocked by great cliffs,
I stumble over small stones, rise, and move forward once more.
Repeating this over and over, I arrive at where I stand now.

Like the turning of a clock,　
I believed that whenever something begins,
it inevitably moves forward toward somewhere.
Even if that direction does not trace a perfect circle, it may bend and twist, or rush straight ahead at such speed that the surrounding scenery disappears.
Through these various paths, I find myself here.

Whether the reason for stopping is a tiny stone or a vast cliff,
it becomes one unchanging reason to pause.
Blocked repeatedly by cliffs, stumbling over small stones, and still moving forward again, I came to realize that beyond lay a landscape
where new scenery mingles with something faintly familiar, and that this place is not yet the goal.

Morning comes, night falls, and a day ends.
Morning comes again, night returns.
Even as I manage these seemingly similar days, the arc widens, becoming a circle unlike yesterday’s.

Like a clock turning, doing the same things at the same times,
walking the same path as yesterday yet the temperature, the humidity,
and the direction of the wind are never the same.

For me, making art is
a repetition of unconsciously absorbing the things and events I encounter each day,
and reconstructing them as a condensed mass of my own inner landscape.
Perhaps it is akin to keeping a diary
or writing down fragments of daily memory.
Perhaps it is like drawing a circle that slowly widens its arc,

Akiko Sumiyoshi