KOMURA Settai and TAKAYAMA Takuro, Two Artists Separated by About 100 Years, Meet at Shiseido Gallery in 'What Time Is It Now'
Shiseido Gallery hosts an exhibition connecting KOMURA Settai and TAKAYAMA Takuro, two artists separated by about 100 years.Summary
An exhibition titled 'What Time Is It Now: KOMURA Settai and TAKAYAMA Takuro' will be held at Shiseido Gallery in Ginza, Tokyo, from November 3 to February 28, 2027, curated by JIN Qiuyu. The exhibition connects two artists separated by about 100 years: KOMURA Settai (1887–1940), active from the Taisho to early Showa periods, and TAKAYAMA Takuro (born 1990), known for installations combining light, video, sound, and three-dimensional forms. KOMURA studied Japanese painting at Tokyo Fine Arts School and worked widely in book design, illustrations, stage art, and film art. From 1918 to 1923, he belonged to Shiseido's design department, contributing to Japanese-style design and the foundation of the Shiseido typeface. Shiseido currently holds over 70 of his works. TAKAYAMA, born in Gifu in 1990, creates installations that use familiar motifs like furniture and daily objects with vivid lighting and sound to shake viewers' bodily senses. In 2025, he held a solo exhibition at Toyota Municipal Museum of Art and received the 76th Geijutsu Sensho Newcomer Award (Fine Arts). For this exhibition, TAKAYAMA presents new installations inspired by KOMURA's works, thoughts, and Ginza of his time. Using frosted glass light, translucent fabric, and stainless steel mirror surfaces, he creates a space where scenery changes with the viewer's perspective and movement, presenting a sense of time where past, present, and future overlap. Alongside TAKAYAMA's new works, three works by KOMURA from his Shiseido period will be shown. The exhibition also introduces footage and materials of Ginza from KOMURA's era, shedding light on memories of KOMURA and Ginza, including Shiseido's design department and the 'Kukukai' literary gatherings around IZUMI Kyoka. The exhibition title comes from a line in KOMURA's 1937 essay 'Temple Pilgrimage': 'One becomes unable to tell whether the present is now or the past.' Set in Shiseido Gallery, which has watched over Ginza since 1919, the exhibition connects KOMURA's sense of blank space and time to the present through TAKAYAMA, offering a chance to question the very notion of 'now.'
(Source：美術手帖)