EGUCHI Ayane: Fugue of Day and Night
EGUCHI Ayane: Fugue of Day and Night
2025 MAY 10 — JUN 15
In EGUCHI Ayane’s paintings, the recurring figures of KUMA, quasi-bear beings, are neither realistic animal depictions nor purely fictional characters, but rather serve as mediators between natural phenomena and emotional imagination. Inspired by the brown bears of Hokkaido, known for being both “cute” and “ferocious,” these KUMA are not passive observers or inhabitants of nature, nor are they mere imaginary constructs. They operate as active agents: floating leisurely atop dazzling seascapes, stirring waves and triggering successive surges; or diving beneath the calm surface, giving rise to unpredictable undercurrents and undertow.
Rather than faithfully depicting animal behavior, Eguchi uses these characters to embody her ongoing investigation into the duality between nature’s surface beauty and its underlying danger. “Beneath a calm surface lies another world,” she says. “We don’t know what’s down there, and we can’t even breathe underwater. I can’t swim—I’m always floating with a life vest or a swim ring. And yet, despite the fear, I still feel compelled to glimpse whatever beauty might exist down below.” This sense of emotional projection toward the unknown mirrors a fundamental structure in her work: a tension between the accessible and the threatening, between sensory delight and latent unease.
The exhibition Fugue of Day and Night further reveals the sense of temporality and rhythmic structure inherent in Eguchi’s practice. The fugue, as a musical technique, is characterized by the systematic repetition and variation of a principal theme across multiple voices, unfolding like a contrapuntal dialogue in motion. Eguchi adopts this structure into a metaphor for her painterly process: the repetition embedded in daily life and artistic routine is not a closed cycle, but an accumulation of subtle differences with each recurrence. Her recurring motif of the quasi-bear figure, KUMA, may appear in similar forms and poses, yet it is continually reconfigured through minute shifts in gesture and context. Within this framework, long-standing dichotomies in her work—such as cuteness and horror, life and death—are not treated as fixed oppositions, but as poles on a spectrum of meaning that together articulate a complex duality. On her canvas, these dualities are juxtaposed and entangled, generating an ambiguous yet harmonious tension.
In Eguchi’s work, cuteness is not decorative, but rather a sensory invitation that draws the viewer into an indeterminate perceptual space. Her bears are neither wholly innocent nor malevolent. The latent danger they hold does not carry a negative connotation, but instead emerges from a neutral logic intrinsic to nature’s mechanisms: a state of irreducible naturalness, appearing differently depending on one’s angle of approach. The tension between cuteness and cruelty is not a contradiction, but a way to reveal the fluidity and layered nature of perceptual experience. The coexistence of cuteness and cruelty forms the core tension in Eguchi’s visual grammar—one that does not conform to the viewer’s expectations of fairy-tale innocence projected onto pastel-colored bears, nor collapse into any singular meaning.
The landscapes in her works are never static backgrounds, but co-creative fields that interact with these quasi-bear figures. Here, the scenery is no longer a passive object of vision, but a resonant ecology co-constructed through presence and movement. Natural phenomena are not merely depicted as “subjects” but are activated through KUMA’s behaviors—churning waves, decaying matter, taking flight—manifesting as existential conditions.
On a technical level, Eguchi’s paintings possess a tactile quality—a visual experience that evokes the sensation of touch. She has remarked that just as humans discern materials through the sensitivity of their fingertips, our eyes can also trigger tactile associations. When we see the surface of an object, we instinctively simulate its feel in our minds. This intersensory linkage underpins her engagement with matière( materiality, texture) as a foundational element in her practice.
Rather than using pigment solely to construct her compositions, she treats it as a material substance, transforming vision into a theater of touch. She builds up soft, fluffy bear fur through dense dotted impasto, scrapes away sections of the surface to let underpainting and upper layers interweave, and applies semi-transparent washes that allow earlier layers to subtly emerge through the surface. These techniques are not merely stylistic but function as painterly translations of remembered touch: the softness of petals, the lushness of leaves, the froth of seawater, the rough bark of trees. The canvas becomes, in a sense, a skin that holds tactile memory.
EGUCHI Ayane Q&A
Q1. There are birds and tropical plants not typically seen in your earlier work. Were these inspired by particular experiences or places?
Oil on canvas
65.4 x 53.1 cm
Photo by MIYAJIMA Kei ©EGUCHI Ayane Courtesy of Mizuma Art Gallery
EGUCHI Ayane:
“The large bird in the lower left of Madoromi Flower and Bird Garden – Yume was one I encountered in 2023 while walking from my hotel to Hiro Hiro Art Space during my solo exhibition. It looked unusual and endearing. I assumed it was rare, but no one around seemed surprised. I asked Ms. Chen, who identified it as the Malayan night heron. I later learned that while it’s endangered in Japan—found only on Ishigaki, Iriomote, and Kuro islands—it’s common in Taiwan. That contrast intrigued me, so I included the bird in this Taiwan series.
Other birds include a silkie chicken I once saw on a walk, as well as familiar sparrows, pigeons, and taxidermied birds from museums. Their presence also extends ideas from my earlier Millefleur1 series.
As for the plants, they’re mostly common garden species and those found in The Lady and the Unicorn2 tapestries, as in my last exhibition. New additions this time include camellia, delphinium, four o’clock flower, trumpet vine, mimosa, orange tree, pine, and rowan.”
1. Millefleur (French for “a thousand flowers”) is a background style common in 15th–16th century European tapestries. It features many small, distinct flowers and plants scattered evenly across a green ground, like a natural meadow. Unlike typical floral patterns, millefleur emphasizes free, dense distribution rather than symmetry or repetition.
2. The Lady and the Unicorn is a set of medieval French tapestries, woven around the late 15th century (circa 1484–1500).
Q2. Your work often features layered textures. With Fugue of Day and Night as the exhibition title, do you see a connection between your painting techniques and the musical structure of a fugue?
EGUCHI Ayane:
“Layering is a fundamental characteristic of oil painting. And it’s almost like an instrument in itself. I build up thick layers of paint and then scrape them back, or apply thin glazes repeatedly to create subtle shifts in color. These repeated but slightly varied gestures may, in a way, echo the structure of a fugue.”
Q3. Approaching painting as a kind of “fugue,” what new “thematic development” have you introduced in this exhibition?
EGUCHI Ayane:
“In this exhibition, there are two pairs of works that may seem thematically linked, though they don’t necessarily form direct sequences. For instance, Children of Flowers – Day and Children of Flowers – Night, as well as Madoromi Flower and Bird Garden – Utsutsu and Madoromi Flower and Bird Garden – Yume.
After a night’s sleep, it seems obvious to say that today’s self is a continuation of yesterday’s. And yet, because sleep involves a loss of consciousness—almost like entering another world—I sometimes find myself wondering: Is that truly real? A slight sense of uncertainty lingers.
In this exhibition, for the first time, I painted KUMAs with their eyes closed. Until now, even if the KUMAs were lying down, their eyes were always open. But because this series deals with themes like night, dreams, sleep, and repetition, the image of closed eyes came to me quite naturally. I’ve always loved sleep, and yet I had never painted a sleeping figure before—it surprised even me.”
Oil on canvas
89.7 x 130.4 cm
Photo by MIYAJIMA Kei ©EGUCHI Ayane Courtesy of Mizuma Art Gallery
Oil on canvas
89.7 x 130.4 cm
Photo by MIYAJIMA Kei ©EGUCHI Ayane Courtesy of Mizuma Art Gallery
At first glance, the two works, Children of Flowers – Day and Children of Flowers – Night, seem to visually flow into one another, though they weren’t necessarily intended to do so.
If you focus solely on Children of Flowers – Night, the upper KUMA(bear) could be interpreted as peacefully asleep, like the two below.
And if you look only at Children of Flowers – Day, you might imagine the bear running forward, glancing back and waving to the KUMA behind.
But when the two paintings are placed one above the other, a new posture emerges, as if the KUMA were gently falling backward into the grass.
As 𝗘𝗚𝗨𝗖𝗛𝗜 𝗔𝘆𝗮𝗻𝗲 reflects, even in the continuous cycle of day and night, everything remains in a constant state of change.
The relationship between these images doesn’t follow a simple linear construction. This sense of ambiguity is central to 𝗘𝗚𝗨𝗖𝗛𝗜 𝗔𝘆𝗮𝗻𝗲’s approach to visual narrative: rather than guiding the viewer through a single narrative, she opens up multiple entry points and rhythms of imagination. Her works don’t passively wait to be seen. They actively engage the viewer in a perceptual space where nonlinear narrative and layered imagination take shape.
EGUCHI Ayane
EGUCHI Ayane was born in 1985 in Hokkaido, Japan, and received her MFA in Oil Painting from Kanazawa College of Art in 2011. In her signature pastel palette, she paints stormy seas, marshes and mountains, using recurring fungi, coral and marine life to explore the duality of beauty and danger, allure and poison, life and death. At first glance her paintings are candy-colored wonderlands, yet unsettling stories lie beneath their sweetness. Scraping away and building up layers of wet oil paint, she creates richly textured surfaces. Her recurring teddy bear, “KUMA,” is cute on the outside yet unknowable within, much like her vision of a world beyond binary opposites.
She has held solo exhibitions in Tokyo, Taipei and Singapore, presented work at Art Basel Hong Kong, and exhibited internationally in Taiwan, Singapore, China, Macau, the Philippines, Indonesia, the United States and Switzerland.
Works
CV
1985 Born in Hokkaido, Japan
2011 M.A. in Oil Painting, Kanazawa College of Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Solo Exhibitions
2025
“Fugue of Day and Night”, Hiro Hiro Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan
“Cosmos of Color”, Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2024
“Intervals”, A/D Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2023
“Sugar-Coated Landscape”, Hiro Hiro Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan
2022
“‘Q’ which decomposes”, Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2020
“EIKO”, Meets by NADiff, Tokyo, Japan
“Viscera of the Vast Land”, Roppongi Hills A/D Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2018
“Ode to Wonderland”, Mizuma Gallery, Singapore
2013
“Mystical Kingdom”, MIZUMA ACTION, Tokyo, Japan
2011
“Fuwa・Moko・SaraSa・Ra”, Tokyo Wonder Site Hongo, Tokyo, Japan
Group Exhibitions
2024
Art Taipei 2024, Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1, Taipei, Taiwan
Tokyo Gendai 2024, Pacifico Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
“ART OF MIKU -Autumn Fair-“, Site-A Gallery Beneath the Railways, Kanagawa, Japan
Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
Art Fair Tokyo 2024, Tokyo, Japan
“ART OF MIKU”, PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO, Tokyo, Japan
“ART OF MIKU”, Sapporo PARCO, Hokkaido, Japan
2023
“Perception and Sensibility”, Humarish Club, Macau
2021
“BOUNDLESS”, Hwa’s Gallery, China
2019
“A Gentle Gaze”, Hwa’s Gallery, Shanghai, China
“Hopes & Dialogues in Rumah Kijang Mizuma”, Mizuma Gallery, Singapore
2018
“Prime Meridian”, Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery, Manila, Philippines
2017
Art Stage Singapore 2017, Mizuma Gallery, Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, Singapore
2016
“Seeing the Unseen”, Gallery Ohrin, Hitachi Izumo Taisha, Ibaraki, Japan
“Eyes & Curiosity -anomaly-“, Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Art Stage Jakarta 2016, Mizuma Gallery, Sheraton Grand Jakarta Gandaria City Hotel, Jakarta, Indonesia
“ART|JOG|9 Universal Influence”, Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Art Stage Singapore 2016, Mizuma Gallery, Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, Singapore
2015
Bazaar Art Jakarta 2015, Mizuma Gallery, The Ritz-Carlton Pacific Place, Jakarta, Indonesia
“Further towards the Future”, Mizuma Gallery, Singapore
2014
“Impacts! 勢み” Japan Art Festival, Zane Bennett Contemporary Art × Mizuma Art Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
2012
“To the Future”, MIZUMA ACTION, Tokyo, Japan
2011
“The Selections from Graduation Works 2011”, Kanazawa Art-Gummi Gallery, Ishikawa, Japan
2010
“2010 Kawaii Award”, Seibu Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
“carré 2010”, Gallery TEN, Ishikawa, Japan
“WONDER SEEDS 2010”, Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
“carré à zurich”, Zurich Insurance Company, Zurich, Switzerland
2009
“via art 2009”, Shinwa Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
“Jinzukyo Art Exhibition 2009”, Osawano Shogai Gakushu Center, Toyama, Japan
“Tokyo Wonder Wall 2009”, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
“cross”, Green Arts Gallery, Ishikawa, Japan
The 4th Mitsubishi Corporation Art Gate Program, Eye of Gyre, Tokyo, Japan
Awards
2011
“Judge’s Special Prize”, KANABI Creative Award 2010
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