Tamaki OTSUKA is a sculptor and performer. Born in 2001, she now lives in Tokyo.
Focusing on sculpture and dance, she creates sculptures, installations, and performances around the theme of “boundaries.” Having been trained in classical ballet and folk dance since childhood, the artist sees dance as an act expanding the boundaries of the body. On the other hand, she views sculpture as a medium that activates the sense of touch to engage with non-human objects, and hopes to make sense of the world using these two senses.
Select exhibitions:
2026: Musashino Art University Graduate Show, Musashino Art University, Tokyo
2024: Atami Art Grant 2024, Baiencho Building, Shizuoka
Select awards:
2026: Excellence Award from the Sculpture Course, Master’s Program in Fine Arts, Graduate School of Art and Design, Musashino Art University
2024: Shimizu Takashi Award
Comment for the exhibition:
I’m very happy and grateful to have an opportunity to show my work to many people.
I feel both nervous and excited at the possibility of my work being seen by a diverse range of visitors, including those who are interested in art as well as those who are not.
I’m looking forward to creating an interesting exhibition together with artists from across genres.
Miho SAITO was born in 2001 in Kanagawa Prefecture and lives in Tokyo. She completed her Master’s degree in the Department of Sculpture at Musashino Art University in 2006. Blending in a touch of humor, she creates three-dimensional works that feel familiar from everyday life yet are difficult to place. By choosing motifs based on things that fly by our peripheral vision, she attempts to re-examine the true nature lying beneath the things we see everyday.
Select exhibitions:
2026: Oouchi Hospital Artists’ Guild “O-HAG,” Oouchi Hospital, Tokyo
2025: Katsurao AIR Youth Program 2025, Katsurao Collective, Fukushima
2024: Grand FRP Exhibition, gallery madogiwa, Tokyo
Select awards:
2025: 9th Generation Creator for the Kuma Foundation Creators Scholarship
2024: 2023 Musashino Art University Graduation Project Excellence Award
2024: Artists in FAS 2024
Comment for the exhibition:
I think the BUG space is ideal for daydreaming. The high ceilings give you an open feeling, and you can see the sky through the gaps above the walls. The presence of my work, which can feel like it’s come from somewhere afar, is also ideal for daydreaming. I think it would feel nice to just get lost in your thoughts while we all gather around the artworks at Yaesu, a prime location in Tokyo. If I’m being greedy, I would love to see this work just placed here on its own, so I hope I can get the Grand Prize to do a solo exhibition.
Kumiko SATO was born in Gifu Prefecture and lives in Tokyo. She completed her Master’s degree in Oil Painting / Printmaking at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music. Her works are inspired by humble musings and exciting discoveries of everyday life. She uses everyday materials such as cardboard to think with her hands and play while making her works.
Select exhibitions:
2026: Artist in Museum AiM Vol.19 Kumiko Sato, The Museum of Fine Arts Gifu Atelier, Gifu
2023: taste/place, Kanagawa Kenmin Hall Gallery, Kanagawa
2021: HAPPY SET, Art Lab Aichi, Aichi
Select awards:
2024: Grand Prize, TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD 2024 Art Competition
2020: 24th Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art (TARO Award)
2020: Excellence Award from the Department of Oil Painting / Printmaking at Aichi University of the Arts’ Graduate School of Fine Arts
Comment for the exhibition:
I create works using my hands and playing with the materials.
My hope is to also be surprised by the completed work myself.
I’m excited to see if this artwork will result in that kind of feeling.
It would be perfect if the artworks stemming from my little fantasies sneak into the minds of the viewers and give them a little chuckle.
Issei SUZUKI was born in Toyama Prefecture in 2004 and is currently enrolled in the Department of Oil Painting at Musashino Art University’s College of Art and Design. Central to his practice is the question: Where do we come from and where are we headed? He creates his work based on fieldwork around land and its surrounding culture. Guided by a folkloristic perspective, he explores ways in which we can engage with and understand the changing landscape of folk culture. His practice also reexamines the state of folk culture in today’s world and questions our own ways of being as well.
Select exhibitions:
2026: Oigawa Art Creation Story, Nukuri, Kawane-cho, Shimada City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Shizuoka
2025: Oroshi: Issei Suzuki Collection Exhibition, Hamura Nakaguruma Suishagoya, Tokyo
2024: Yadorigi Guide 2024: ‘How to Dwell on the Land’ – Lifting Stones, Confirming, Nishiaizu International Art Village, Fukushima
Select awards:
2025: A-TOM ART AWARD 2025
Comment for the exhibition:
I would first like to show my appreciation to all the people who made this work happen. The Tools and Their Uses 2026 -Nukuri Version- project comes from the culture of the land of Nukuri and my interactions with its people, and it resulted in a work that strongly represents contemporary folkways.
In my mind, folk customs allow us to look into the changing present through the insights of our inherited culture. I’m excited to see how the events that took place in Nukuri, and the atmosphere there, come to life at BUG in Tokyo.
More than anything, I’m very excited for the local men I met at Nukuri to come see my show.
Sami TAKEUCHI was born in Tokyo in 2001. He spent their early childhood in Kanagawa and Hyogo Prefecture, then moved to Istanbul, Turkey, his father’s home country, before entering elementary school. He grew up between Turkey and Japan, spending a total of seven years in Istanbul. He returned to Okayama, Japan, in middle school, and are now enrolled in the Department of Sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. With an interest in people and places, he create their work using three-dimensional media, photography, or a combination of the two.
Select exhibitions:
2026: Sekine Heights 201, Sekine Heights, Chiba
2025: The City, Gallery & Space Tatsumi, Tokyo
2025: Chemistry, Tokyo University of the Arts Art & Science Lab, Tokyo
Comment for the exhibition:
I’m excited to see how my sculptures will appear and unfold in this place right next to Tokyo Station.
Moche LE CENDRILLON was born in Aichi Prefecture. In 2026, they completed her Master’s degree in the Department of Intermedia Art at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. They creates media art that explores sexuality, the body, and norms around sexual love while also performing as a drag artist primarily in Tokyo. They are a member of Cerberus Theory, an artist collective that explores the art world’s potential as a safer space through a queer-feminist lens, and also engages in interdisciplinary practices including art project planning.
Select exhibitions:
2025: CAF Award 2025, Hillside Forum, Tokyo
2025: Collecting shells, leaving behind a trace, TARO House, Kyoto
2025: KUMA experiment 2024-25 vol.7: 余白/blank/freiraum/空白（Kung¹ baak⁶), Kuma Gallery, Tokyo
Select awards:
2025: Eriko Kimura Prize at the CAF Award
2025: Kawamura Arts and Cultural Foundation’s Socially Engaged Art Support Grant
2022-2024: 6th, 7th, and 8th Generation Creators for the Kuma Foundation Creators Scholarship
Comment for the exhibition:
I usually work as a drag performer, doing about two shows a month, and also organize my own projects once or twice a year, and then come to Tokyo to do exhibitions if I win a competition. As a queer artist who believes in the power of queer culture to resist social norms, my ambition is to queer this world by sharing my work—an undiluted queer practice that traverses all kinds of spaces—with as many people as possible. I’m excited to meet you all.
