TEZUKAYAMA GALLERY is pleased to present “Never-ending,” a solo exhibition by Naosuke Wada.

Born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1983, Wada completed his M.A at Kyoto University of Art and Design (now Kyoto University of the Arts) in 2013. After several years of working in Kyoto, he is currently based in Osaka, where he continues to develop his practice with remarkable energy and precision.

What distinguishes Wada’s work is his unique painterly expression, built upon the classical glazing technique—layering thin, translucent washes of paint—to explore light and space. Through the repeated application of highly transparent mediums, the paint forms subtle strata of color and depth, producing a luminous transparency as though the light itself is embedded within the work. Depending on the viewer’s distance and angle, forms and hues shift delicately, offering a visual experience imbued with fluidity, reminiscent of drifting glaciers. By integrating overlapping memories and temporal structures and sublimating them into painting, Wada invites a reconsideration of the very act of “seeing.”

In his first solo exhibition in 2022, Wada expanded his pictorial structure by introducing physical alterations such as missing sections, distortions, and shrinkage to the canvas, bringing material transformation to the forefront and pushing his painting practice into a new phase. In 2023, for the duo exhibition Sessha — Proof of Painting IV with Atsuo Suzuki, both artists jointly oversaw the curation and spatial composition, manifesting their respective approaches to painting through the exhibition format itself. More recently, Wada has participated in Intervals—a collaborative project launched in 2024 by galleries in Tokyo, Osaka, and Seoul—and he is preparing to present new works in Seoul next year, drawing increasing attention for his evolving practice.

This exhibition, Wada’s first in approximately three years, takes a closer look at the element of “trimming,” which has intertwined with his creative process over time. In his previous solo show, he employed physical omissions and ruptures—such as voids and tears along the borders of pictorial space—to generate irregular contrasts that engaged the viewer’s imagination and questioned the complementarity of painting. In the present exhibition, Wada focuses on how new images can emerge infinitely through the act of cropping or isolating parts of a given motif. The new body of work reflects this inquiry while also tracing and reconfiguring his own ongoing production process.

Regarding this exhibition, Wada remarks: “I wanted to focus on the sensory and incidental aspects that arise during the act of creation itself. Rather than placing all emphasis on contemplation alone, I felt drawn to engage with painting through the very process and gestures that bring a work into being.”

While many painters continue to pursue originality, it is equally true that none can escape the influence of art history. Wada’s practice in this exhibition may thus be seen as an attempt to recalibrate his relationship to that historical continuum—while simultaneously offering a critical perspective on his own understanding of painting and the very act of making it.