Shigeru Onishi: Photography and Painting
An exhibition at Tokyo Station Gallery examines Shigeru Onishi's photographic and painting practice centered on his concept of 'Trans-Infinite.'Summary
The article covers an exhibition titled 'Shigeru Onishi: Photography and Painting' held at Tokyo Station Gallery from January 31 to March 29, 2026. Onishi, who produced photographs and abstract paintings from the 1950s, pursued research into his concept of 'Trans-Infinite' while engaging with avant-garde art movements such as 'Subjectivism Photography' and Concrete art. Works entrusted to photo historian Ryuchi Kaneko have been gradually revealed since 2014, leading to this first retrospective at a Japanese museum. Onishi's photography is characterized by a notable emphasis on darkroom processes rather than the bright space of subject-camera interaction; his techniques include multiple printing, sponge and brush development, and chemical manipulation. Unlike his contemporaries who focused on how to capture subjects, Onishi used developing fluid as a solvent to create abstract lines, combining concrete imagery with abstract brushstrokes in a synthesis of the particular and the abstract. After about a decade he shifted to painting, producing works aligned with Art Informel under the influence of Michel Tapié. The exhibition prompts renewed appreciation of Onishi as a precursor to modern photography.
(Source：artscape)