RE:MONCHHICHI
RE:MONCHHICHI
Based on the theme of "Stuffed toys are a form of memory," this exhibition is an attempt by three contemporary artists, Koichiro Tada, Akina Tokiyoshi, and Mioka Matsuura, to reinterpret, in their own ways, the fundamental sensations that Monchhichi has fostered in people, such as affection, security, memory, and touch. Through a variety of media, including sculpture, drawing, and installation, Monchhichi as a "being close by" is visualized as art, offering visitors a new encounter.
Additionally, in collaboration with contemporary artist Ken Kagami, who was born in 1974, the same year as Monchhichi, we will be producing and releasing a Monchhichi exclusive MEET YOUR ART FESTIVAL.
About KenKagamixMYAF2025 Collaboration Monchhichi
About Ken Kagami
Born in Tokyo in 1974, he currently lives and works in Tokyo.
He creates artworks that use everyday events as jokes or comedic ideas.
He creates many sculptures and drawings based on art history and current topics.
Major exhibitions: 2020 "Masterpiece" curated by Emily Watlington, a two-person exhibition with Trevor Shimizu, Anthony Greaney, Boston, a two-person exhibition, 2017 "Retrospective" Parco Museum Ikebukuro, solo exhibition
He has also formed the unit C&K with artist COBRA.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kenkagami/
"RE:MONCHHICHI"
Exhibiting Artist Profiles
◆ Tada Koichiro
Painter, born in 1992. Gunma Born in Ota City. Graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Department of Painting (Laboratory of Techniques and Materials). Based on her own experiences of separation from trusted others, such as heartbreak, isolation, and bereavement, she has been working with the image of others who continue to change fluidly in her mind (like a complex chimera of past experiences that does not indicate a specific individual), which she calls "you," to multifacetedly determine the existence of this motif with its indefinite shape but strong sense of reality. He uses a variety of materials and methods of expression to create his works, as if he were trying to determine the existence of this motif, which has an indefinite shape but is accompanied by a strong sense of reality. Many of his works are extremely experimental, referring to the work and attitude of modern painters such as Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse, who confronted their own expression over a long period of time. In addition, apart from his individual production activities, he regularly organizes independent exhibitions and art festivals, calling on players of his generation (including curators and critics) under the theme of "the antithesis of the modern age, which seeks premature expression. Major solo exhibitions include "Colorful Corpse Flesh" (2023,TAKU SOMETANI G ALL ERY) "Until You Turn into You" (2024,galleryblue3143), major group exhibitions include "Lived Garden" (2019, Kyoto Botanical Garden, curated by Yu Takagi) "Standing Ovation / (2021, Hotel New Akao, curated by Yu Takagi), "YUWO-SURU WALKING BUNJIN" (2023, GASBON_METABOLISM, curated by Kei Harachie), and major independent exhibitions include "Painting and Movement 'Rough Dimension'" (2018, Yotsuya Unidentified Studio), "Let's Take a Little Side Trip. Why don't we take a short detour? (2023, Nezu Curry Lucky), "Say hello to Stranger" (2021, various locations in Kanazawa, Ishikawa), "Uraraka Painting Festival" (2023, various locations in Taito-ku, Tokyo, hired curators: Ito, Yuki Iimori, Yu Takagi, Atsuhiro Miyake, Rintaro Fuse), etc.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tadakoiichiro/
◆Akina Tokiyoshi
Born in Osaka Prefecture in 1994. Graduated from the Department of Information Design, Faculty of Art and Design, Kyoto University of Art and Design in 2016.
In 2018, he won the Grand Prix in the Graphics category at "ALL" for his solo exhibition "Number One," as well as the workshop "Something's happening at the Ham★Star Museum!?" (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2020), the solo exhibition "Interesting Chinese Restaurants" (WHITEHOUSE, 2022), and the solo exhibition "Liminal Suite" (BnA Alter Museum, 2025). He won the Nagai Hiroshi Meister Award at "Human Museum 2018."
While exhibiting at art exhibitions both in Japan and abroad, he has also worked on client projects for companies such as ABC-MART and Hobonichi, participated in a group exhibition hosted by comedian Kinzoku Bat, and provided work for the music video for the alternative rock band GEZAN's "Chūken." Since 2022, he has been a part-time lecturer at Kyoto University of the Arts.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akinatokiyoshi/
◆Matsuura Mioka
My creative practice is primarily centered on artworks using fabric, as well as oil paintings (or images) featuring these motifs. Recently, I have been working not only on depicting motifs, but also on paintings that fuse images and their subject matter. These paintings are deeply rooted in my work, inspired by the soft texture of fabric, a unique sense of material beauty and materiality that I've been exposed to since childhood thanks to my mother, and my interest in how images (or two-dimensional drawings) emerge as three-dimensional sculptures. These paintings also evoke memories of my childhood, the sublimity and intimacy of pet cats and stuffed toys that I can't touch even if I want to, the tactile sensation of soft fabrics stacked on top of each other, and the changes in my environment and personal experiences—both positive and negative—that I unconsciously express poetically and accumulate within my idealized works. As I create, I feel as if the works begin to take on a life of their own. Rather, they follow a mysterious process, as if they take on a life of their own and, with my help, are brought to completion. It seems to me that the habit of observing the outside as if searching for something underneath is similar to the way that, when one traces the surface of a painting, it gradually begins to take on an inner (spiritual) element.
I feel that behind these intuitive (or spontaneous) creative endeavors lies the same impulse we all have as children, moving into action before we can even put it into words. If, through these intuitive works, we can turn our attention to the boundaries between what is considered 'beautiful' and what is not, which are our fundamental senses, or to the differences in our perception of what is alive or what is there as a material object, I believe we may be able to rediscover the charm of imperfection.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ Raul__nnnn5/
Additionally, in collaboration with contemporary artist Ken Kagami, who was born in 1974, the same year as Monchhichi, we will be producing and releasing a Monchhichi exclusive MEET YOUR ART FESTIVAL.
About KenKagamixMYAF2025 Collaboration Monchhichi
About Ken Kagami
Born in Tokyo in 1974, he currently lives and works in Tokyo.
He creates artworks that use everyday events as jokes or comedic ideas.
He creates many sculptures and drawings based on art history and current topics.
Major exhibitions: 2020 "Masterpiece" curated by Emily Watlington, a two-person exhibition with Trevor Shimizu, Anthony Greaney, Boston, a two-person exhibition, 2017 "Retrospective" Parco Museum Ikebukuro, solo exhibition
He has also formed the unit C&K with artist COBRA.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kenkagami/
"RE:MONCHHICHI"
Exhibiting Artist Profiles
◆ Tada Koichiro
Painter, born in 1992. Gunma Born in Ota City. Graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Department of Painting (Laboratory of Techniques and Materials). Based on her own experiences of separation from trusted others, such as heartbreak, isolation, and bereavement, she has been working with the image of others who continue to change fluidly in her mind (like a complex chimera of past experiences that does not indicate a specific individual), which she calls "you," to multifacetedly determine the existence of this motif with its indefinite shape but strong sense of reality. He uses a variety of materials and methods of expression to create his works, as if he were trying to determine the existence of this motif, which has an indefinite shape but is accompanied by a strong sense of reality. Many of his works are extremely experimental, referring to the work and attitude of modern painters such as Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse, who confronted their own expression over a long period of time. In addition, apart from his individual production activities, he regularly organizes independent exhibitions and art festivals, calling on players of his generation (including curators and critics) under the theme of "the antithesis of the modern age, which seeks premature expression. Major solo exhibitions include "Colorful Corpse Flesh" (2023,TAKU SOMETANI G ALL ERY) "Until You Turn into You" (2024,galleryblue3143), major group exhibitions include "Lived Garden" (2019, Kyoto Botanical Garden, curated by Yu Takagi) "Standing Ovation / (2021, Hotel New Akao, curated by Yu Takagi), "YUWO-SURU WALKING BUNJIN" (2023, GASBON_METABOLISM, curated by Kei Harachie), and major independent exhibitions include "Painting and Movement 'Rough Dimension'" (2018, Yotsuya Unidentified Studio), "Let's Take a Little Side Trip. Why don't we take a short detour? (2023, Nezu Curry Lucky), "Say hello to Stranger" (2021, various locations in Kanazawa, Ishikawa), "Uraraka Painting Festival" (2023, various locations in Taito-ku, Tokyo, hired curators: Ito, Yuki Iimori, Yu Takagi, Atsuhiro Miyake, Rintaro Fuse), etc.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tadakoiichiro/
◆Akina Tokiyoshi
Born in Osaka Prefecture in 1994. Graduated from the Department of Information Design, Faculty of Art and Design, Kyoto University of Art and Design in 2016.
In 2018, he won the Grand Prix in the Graphics category at "ALL" for his solo exhibition "Number One," as well as the workshop "Something's happening at the Ham★Star Museum!?" (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2020), the solo exhibition "Interesting Chinese Restaurants" (WHITEHOUSE, 2022), and the solo exhibition "Liminal Suite" (BnA Alter Museum, 2025). He won the Nagai Hiroshi Meister Award at "Human Museum 2018."
While exhibiting at art exhibitions both in Japan and abroad, he has also worked on client projects for companies such as ABC-MART and Hobonichi, participated in a group exhibition hosted by comedian Kinzoku Bat, and provided work for the music video for the alternative rock band GEZAN's "Chūken." Since 2022, he has been a part-time lecturer at Kyoto University of the Arts.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akinatokiyoshi/
◆Matsuura Mioka
My creative practice is primarily centered on artworks using fabric, as well as oil paintings (or images) featuring these motifs. Recently, I have been working not only on depicting motifs, but also on paintings that fuse images and their subject matter. These paintings are deeply rooted in my work, inspired by the soft texture of fabric, a unique sense of material beauty and materiality that I've been exposed to since childhood thanks to my mother, and my interest in how images (or two-dimensional drawings) emerge as three-dimensional sculptures. These paintings also evoke memories of my childhood, the sublimity and intimacy of pet cats and stuffed toys that I can't touch even if I want to, the tactile sensation of soft fabrics stacked on top of each other, and the changes in my environment and personal experiences—both positive and negative—that I unconsciously express poetically and accumulate within my idealized works. As I create, I feel as if the works begin to take on a life of their own. Rather, they follow a mysterious process, as if they take on a life of their own and, with my help, are brought to completion. It seems to me that the habit of observing the outside as if searching for something underneath is similar to the way that, when one traces the surface of a painting, it gradually begins to take on an inner (spiritual) element.
I feel that behind these intuitive (or spontaneous) creative endeavors lies the same impulse we all have as children, moving into action before we can even put it into words. If, through these intuitive works, we can turn our attention to the boundaries between what is considered 'beautiful' and what is not, which are our fundamental senses, or to the differences in our perception of what is alive or what is there as a material object, I believe we may be able to rediscover the charm of imperfection.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ Raul__nnnn5/