Karuizawa New Art Museum 1st floor gallery (White Stone) is pleased to present Hikari Shimoda's first solo exhibition at White Stone, "To the Damaged and Broken."

Contemporary artist Hikari Shimoda is inspired by the vibrant worldview of Japanese manga and anime, and uses her colorful, illustrative perspective to tackle various issues in modern society.
In this exhibition, Shimoda will display 20 works, including those depicting people surviving despite the "pain and loneliness of life," a theme he has been working on up until now, as well as new works that incorporate the conceptual element of "kintsugi."

Below is the artist's statement:
Two years after I fell into depression and was no longer able to paint, I started Kintsugi as a hobby. It was a simple technique using resin, but I enjoyed the process of repairing broken things.
He sometimes intentionally breaks pottery with a hammer to practice kintsugi, but this action makes him feel guilty, as if he has hurt someone.

The frustration and regret of having done something irreparable. Then, you try to repair the broken vessel yourself. Depending on the item, it may even end up looking better than it was before.

The vessels break in various ways, and once repaired, they become one of a kind.

Up until now, I have been depicting the theme of living while enduring the pain and loneliness of life. Who can save us from this pain? In the end, it is either death or the individual's own endurance and transformation.

There is constant conflict in the world, which continues to create deep divisions both in real life and online.
How could I be saved? I couldn't find an answer.
While watching the news about the conflict on TV and doing the gold repair, I thought, "Maybe I should just keep fixing it."

What is broken cannot be restored. A wounded heart, body, or relationship between people will probably never return to the way it was before. But perhaps it is possible to repair them into a different form. Perhaps that is one form of salvation.
With this in mind, I decided to display the works I have created up until now that are in the midst of suffering, alongside works that conceptually project kintsugi onto paintings.

The title "Things" refers to various things such as the human mind, society, and the world.
-Hikari Shimoda

• Planning and Organizing

  WHITESTONE Karuizawa

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