Kishio Suga: Existence Within Definite Contours

Tomio Koyama Gallery Kyobashi is pleased to present “Existence Within Definite Contours,” an exhibition by Kishio Suga. Suga has held exhibitions of new works at our gallery for 10 consecutive years since 2015, including “Intentional Scenic Space” (2015), “Divided Orientation of Space” (2017), “Expanded Self-Space” (2018), “Measured Divisional Entities” (2019), “Released Scenic Space” (2020), “Gathered ” (2021), “Not Being Present, Not Being Absent” (2022), “Neither Things nor Sites” (2023), and “There Is Neither Such Thing as Being, Nor Such Thing as Not Being” (2024). This year, Suga will present his first exhibition at our new space in Kyobashi, titled “Existence Within Definite Contours” (2025).

At the Kyobashi gallery, Suga will exhibit new sculptures and installations, while the Roppongi and Tennoz spaces will also hold concurrent exhibitions of his work. In Roppongi, drawings from the 1970s and 80s and small three-dimensional works from the 1980s through 2000s will be exhibited. Meanwhile, the gallery in Tennoz will showcase activation videos, photographs, and drawings, as well as a series of works using paste on slate from the 1990s.

Exhibition View: Kishio Suga: Existence Within Definite Contours, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Tomio Koyama Gallery

The catalog, which is published annually, features a special contribution from Simon Groom, Director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, who curated a two-person exhibition by Suga and Carla Black (2016) and wrote a text for the catalog of Suga’s solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2015).

Kishio Suga (1944-) was a key member of the Mono-ha art movement of the late 1960s and 70s. He subsequently went on to deepen the essential world of his works expressed by the diversity of the existence of things, and has carved out a unique niche as a leading contemporary practitioner of postwar Japanese art.

菅木志雄 Kishio Suga 入遠 Entering Distance 2024 wood, acrylic h.119.9 x w.90.0 x d.8.2 cm ©Kishio Suga

Suga’s thinking, which focuses on “things” (mono) themselves that were previously only everyday materials, the human beings who perceive those things, and their relationships with each other, continues to pose fundamental questions about existing art and ways of looking at the world, earning him a formidable international reputation.
Suga has participated in more than 400 exhibitions, and his works are in the collections of more than 40 museums in Japan and abroad, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Tate Modern, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He will be presenting a solo exhibition at Dia Beacon in New York opening July 19, 2025.

Regarding the new works at this exhibition, and his own practice, Suga says that he now works simply and quickly. “Simplicity is important to me now. I think my work from my younger days was rather complicated. To know what ‘things’ are saying, and a kind of complexity that does not appear as such — that is what is important, however. Works from a long time past and works from the present are continuous, and not divided by time. The thoughtfulness in a particular moment, however, changes what is important and how we see it.”

Exhibition View: Kishio Suga: Existence Within Definite Contours, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Tomio Koyama Gallery

On the occasion of this exhibition, Suga penned the following statement.

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“Existence Within Definite Contours”
Things always exist as singular entities. And yet, people possess a mode of thought that resists this. We try to perceive meaning in things, and things can momentarily reveal aspects they never revealed before. What is visible is not all there is. And just because something is invisible does not mean that it lacks existence. It is the human eye that acknowledges existence—and the same eye that denies it. We must anticipate conditions beyond the norm.

Kishio Suga, May 2025

Of his current work, Suga also had the following to say.
“Before, I would use iron, stone, and rope, but now I only use wood. Although wood suits me in terms of the feeling it gives me and how it relates to my consciousness, the way in which I use things is more important than the materiality of the object. Philosophy is necessary to look at things. The act of creating an artwork is not aboutThings are not ideas: thingsthey already have an existence. Unless you are constantly thinking about what state your actions and circumstances are in, rather than about methodologies, it is extremely difficult to succeed at creating something.” (from an interview conducted at Suga’s studio, February 2025)

Suga’s senses have become even more finely honed over the past decade. Even as he maintains an underlying strain of thinking, he is not averse to change. Thanks to this keen sensitivity to the spirit of the times and human consciousness, Suga’s works continue to express a sense of contemporaneity. He constantly poses us questions, presenting us with a fresh worldview where theory and things intersect with each other. We hope you will take the rare opportunity to visit this exhibition.

For more information about this exhibition and the gallery, please visit the Tomio Koyama Gallery site here. The gallery can also be found on Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube.

Kishio Suga: Existence Within Definite Contours

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