Honke Mai solo exhibition "liquid"
shimokitazawaartsFebruary 4 - 15, 2026
1-7 pm
Closed on Feb. 9 & 10
Shimokitazawa Arts is pleased to present liquid, the first Tokyo solo exhibition by Honke Mai.
Honke Mai was born in Osaka Prefecture in 1999. She graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Kyoto City University of Arts in 2023, completed the Master’s Program in Fine Arts at the same university in 2025, and is currently based in Osaka.
Honke has loved drawing since childhood. When she first encountered an orca at a nursery school age, she was captivated by the power and elegance of its fluid, dynamic body. From then on, she began visiting zoos and aquariums every week. Even after seriously committing herself to painting upon entering university, animals have remained a constant motif in her work.
Prompted by experiences such as the death of her beloved dog, Honke continues to contemplate deeply the question, “What does it mean to be alive?” While life is undeniably singular, no being can live alone. Humans, animals, plants, and their surrounding environments are all indispensable to existence. To express this interdependence, Honke creates works in which large, flowing forms rendered in charcoal emerge, within which living beings appear as integral parts of the whole.
No matter how small or large, every creature lives as a single, irreplaceable life in this world. Depicting a fragment of the unbroken energy of life like the current of a great river, Honke’s rich monochromatic world is at once austere and beautiful. We invite you to experience this compelling body of work.
Artist statement
I have loved animals and living creatures since I was very young.
It is difficult to capture this feeling with a single word like “love,” but I sense that they teach us the fundamental nature of life—not only its beauty, but also its struggles, fragility, and even its grotesque aspects.
Perhaps I hold a sense of admiration for their very existence.
Who am I? What is this world, what is life, and what does it mean to live?
Through my eyes, I paint the forms of life as I perceive them.
About the Solo Exhibition liquid
On the Boundaries of Life
When we drink water from a glass, it circulates through our bodies and is eventually expelled.The air we inhale is taken into our system and converted into energy.
Our thoughts and personalities are profoundly shaped by the environment and by our senses.
Where does one’s “inside” begin, and where does the “outside” start—for humans, for living beings?
We, myself included, are creatures who name, distinguish, and seek to categorize everything.
Yet the world continues to change in endlessly diverse ways, connecting us with the “outside” and constantly exchanging what is within and without, to the point that such distinctions seem almost meaningless.
I sense no strict boundaries between humans and nature, between self and other, between life and non-life. At times, this world feels like a single, vast liquid.
The walls that separate us begin to dissolve: the self becomes the other, and the other becomes the self.
A vague, chaotic world.
Coming together, drifting apart—
it is in this space, in this in-between, that I feel we are continually being asked: Who are we?
Honke Mai
Born in February 1999 in Osaka Prefecture, Japan.
Graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts in 2023.
Completed the Master’s Program in Fine Arts at Kyoto City University of Arts in 2025.
Currently based in Osaka.
Favorite Artists：Takeuchi Seiho, Ishizaki Koyo ,Ernst Haeckel (biological illustrations)
Solo Exhibition
2024 "Testament of the Moment" Shibatacho Gallery, Osaka
Group Exhibitions
2025
Two-person exhibition "Things That Stand There" Shibatacho Gallery, Osaka
2024
OSAKA ART MARKET 2024, Grand Front Osaka, Osaka
"The Monkey Center Comes to Nagoya Sakae Mitsukoshi!" Nagoya Sakae Mitsukoshi, Aichi
"FRAGILE" Miurajiro Gallery, Tokyo
2021
"The Other Side of the Eyelid" Kyoto City University of Arts Small Gallery, Kyoto
Awards
2024 Selected for the Kyoto Karasuma Rokkaku Art Project Exhibition
