LIO was born in 1996 in Nagano, and raised in Tokyo. They graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Inter-Media Art in 2023 after studying abroad in Athens, Greece. As a queer, they create multimedia works that move back and forth between fiction and non-fiction, mainly on the theme of Intersectional identities. The artist is currently residing in Okinawa in order to consider issues concerning colonialism.
Select Exhibitions:
2023 Touch My Mumblings, Hug My Words, Kiss My Singing. Denchu Hirakushi House and Atelier, Tokyo, Japan
2024 Step on the Threshold. The University Art Museum (Tokyo University of the Arts), Tokyo, Japan
2024 SYMPOSION. Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo, Japan
Comment for the exhibition:
Despite my disillusionment with an industry that responds to an ongoing genocide with silence or cynicism, I’m presenting my work because I cannot abandon the possibility that it might be able to get through to people who are interested because it is a “work of art.” Beyond that, I hope it can serve as a stepping stone for those who gather at BUG, in Tokyo, to get past any barriers to participation in social activism and get involved, even if only in some small way. I’d be satisfied if I’m able to put together an exhibition that best serves those goals.
Ayumi OKITA was born in Okayama Prefecture in 1994. They completed the Master’s program in the Department of Crafts at Kanazawa College of Art in 2024. Based in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, the artist’s painting practice adopts urushi lacquer as a medium. They look for links between humans and non-human beings, and view lacquer, a plant sap that undergoes transformations beyond the expectations of the individual using it, as a mediator connecting people and nature. In recent years, Okita’s interests have broadened to include the interaction between natural environments and human activity, as well as the folklore and mythology that has come to be intertwined with such relationships.
Select Exhibitions:
2024 Bearing Calendars, Consuming Seeds. Shirasagi, Ishikawa, Japan
2024 Gushō⇔chūshō—kaiga ni oite gushōteki na mono ga chūshōteki na mono ni kawaru shunkan ya keiki, aruiwa sono hantai no genshō [Figurative ⇔ abstract—the moment or opportunity for the transformation from figurative to abstract in painting, or the reverse phenomenon], curated by Hiroki Yamamoto. ASTER Curator Museum, Ishikawa, Japan
2024 Blessings Flow Through the Wounds. Kuma Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Select Awards:
2020 Sato International Cultural Scholarship Foundation 30th Term Selection
2018 Kuma Foundation 2nd Term Selection
2017 38th Takifuji International Art Award Excellence Prize
Comment for the exhibition:
I feel that there’s something truly significant about being able to present this work—which reexamines our relationship with and prayers to nature, both of which are being lost—at BUG, near Tokyo Station and in the heart of the city. Much like urushi lacquer, or Oku-noto no Aenokoto (a form of harvest ritual passed down from generation to generation by rural dwellers of the Noto Peninsula), which inspired this project, many practices and aspects of our culture are quietly fading away. But I want to explore the meaning they could hold today, and the potential they still have. As we move toward September, I spend the rainy season and summer in a small room, watching the lacquer transform from day to day.
Mizuki Takahashi was born in 1999. She became interested in drawing by a vague desire to see things no one had ever seen before. By acting through the mediation of an other, distinct from her controllable self, Takahashi can induce moments of creativity that give rise to something transcending her own imagination. She believes that diluting the creative intervention of the artist on the drawing machine to its furthest possible extent allows for moments when something that no one has ever seen is born.
Select Exhibitions:
2024 Bearing Calendars, Consuming Seeds. Shirasagi, Ishikawa, Japan
2024 Gushō⇔chūshō—kaiga ni oite gushōteki na mono ga chūshōteki na mono ni kawaru shunkan ya keiki, aruiwa sono hantai no genshō [Figurative ⇔ abstract—the moment or opportunity for the transformation from figurative to abstract in painting, or the reverse phenomenon], curated by Hiroki Yamamoto. ASTER Curator Museum, Ishikawa, Japan
2024 Blessings Flow Through the Wounds. Kuma Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Select Exhibitions:
2023 Tokyo University of the Arts Graduation Works Exhibition (Master’s). Tokyo, Japan
Select Awards:
2022 Watowa Art Award 2022, Saisuke Ohba Award
Comment for the exhibition:
This exhibition will be the first time I have presented new work in two years, and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity.
To dilute the creative intervention of the artist on the drawing machine to the minimal possible level, I decided on this occasion to rely on the power of ritual. I believe that rituals require the payment of a sacrifice, and for that reason I intend to fast during the exhibition period. I have no idea what will happen, but I have a feeling that this will be a good exhibition.
XU Qiu Cheng was born in Henan Province, China, in 1993, and is now based in Tokyo. He earned a degree in Media Arts from Tama Art University’s Media Arts Course, and went on to complete graduate studies at Tokyo University of the Arts’ Department of Intermedia Art. The artist primarily uses game engines to create videos and games. His practice adopts techniques from games and theater to address issues such as the afterlife, dream, memory, and post-memory.
Select Exhibitions:
2023 Atlas of a Dream Volcano. Datsuijo – (a) place to be naked, Tokyo, Japan
2023The Colossus on AIR. Gallery X by Parco, Tokyo, Japan
2023 The Window of Spaceship ‘In-Between’ (chelfitsch). Locations including Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan; Wuzhen, China; Brussels, Belgium; Seoul, South Korea; and Paris, France.
Select Awards:
2023 Tokyo Gedai ARTFES 2024 Honorable Mention WEBSITE
2023 Asia Digital Art Award FUKUOKA, Moving Images Grand Award/Minister of MEXT Award
2021 Tama Art University Alumni Association Scholarship
Comment for the exhibition:
I like to walk at night. I have no destination in mind, but somehow I believe I’ll arrive somewhere.
Going around and around, surrounded by a cool breeze and the scent of plants and only able to see the ground at my feet, I felt the Earth rotating, and noticed the stars beyond the Earth.
Why do I speak Japanese, and what images arise from that language?
I created the work from these doubts, or this state. Perhaps.
Please come visit, see it with your eyes, and hear it with your ears.
Ryohei YOSHIHARA was born in Hiroshima. He studied at Silpakorn Univerity as part of an exchange program, and graduated from the Department of Painting at Tama Art University’s Faculty of Art and Design. He simultaneously completed Bigakkō’s Gendai āto no katteguchi [Back door entrance to contemporary art] program. The artist established Artsalon Engawa. He completed the Mural Painting Course at the Department of Painting in Tokyo University of the Arts’ Graduate School of Fine Arts. Recently, Yoshihara has been conducting research on fujizuka (mounds representing Mount Fuji, found around the Tokyo area).
Select Exhibitions:
2025 Absence of Julian. Up & Coming, Tokyo, Japan
2022 Jitsuzuki no mono tachi [Shared ground]. Artsalon Engawa, Tokyo, Japan
2018 Atami Art Week. Atami City Center, Shizuoka, Japan.
Select Awards:
2021 3rd Arts Council Tokyo Startup Grant
Comment for the exhibition:
I expect all kinds of people will come to the exhibition. Each will have had countless experiences before encountering my work, and will go on to have countless more after. As an artist, I find it very exciting to think that my work might have even the slightest influence across that before to after.
Ayu ZENYOJI was born in 1999. She is currently based in her hometown of Tokyo. The artist travelled to Germany for the Painting/Glass course at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle in 2024, and graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts’ Department of Design, Faculty of Fine Arts, in March 2025. Zenyoji examines the gender norms unconsciously reproduced by our visual culture through AI, the media, and advertising, as well as the relationship between consumer society and beauty. She visualizes these structures through a diverse range of techniques and humorous approaches, making use of stickers, machines, video, stained glass, and other materials. Her creative practice focuses on forms of physicality that have been excluded from representation, and the symbolism of anonymized faces.
Select Exhibitions:
2025 Mikke Studio with OTOMODACHI. Mikke Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2021 〇〇〇〇tsu〇. Ameyoko Center Building, Tokyo, Japan
2021 Consuming Commodity. Ginza Chuo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Select Awards:
2025 Tokyo University of the Arts Graduation Works Exhibition, Heisei Geijutsu Award
2023 Tokyo Geidei ARTFES 2023, Excellence Award
Comment for the exhibition:
Although I have some nerves and anxiety about my first selection as an award finalist, I’m deeply grateful for this opportunity. I’m very interested to see how this work, which challenges the image of women used to promote consumption, will be received in the BUG space so close to Tokyo Station. My hope is that the work will serve as a chance to inject even a little unease into the media landscape we take for granted.
