Soe Yu Nwe, Tomoko Kashiki: Soe Yu Nwe | Tomoko Kashiki
Ota Fine Arts is delighted to present a two-person exhibition featuring Soe Yu Nwe and Tomoko Kashiki. Despite their distinct cultural backgrounds, the works of these two female artists quietly resonate with each other in the gallery space through the artists' unique approaches to the human figure and the spiritual realm.
Myanmar-born sculptor Soe Yu Nwe (b. 1989) draws inspiration from Burmese folklore, vernacular arts, and Buddhist and animistic practices. Her sculptures often feature fragmented female bodies transformed into visceral, semi-botanical forms. Reflecting her own mixed Chinese-Burmese heritage, Nwe’s practice embraces hybridity to explore the multiplicity and fluidity of identity. One of her recurring mythical motifs is the "Goddess of the Serpent," a metaphor for the self, rebirth, and femininity – a symbolic challenge to the conservative gender roles traditionally upheld in Myanmar's Buddhist doctrine. Another significant motif in this exhibition is the head of Guanyin (Kannon Bodhisattva). Inspired by her encounter with the Kannon statues at Sanjūsangen-dō in Kyoto where the deity appears as male, unlike the typically female depictions in Myanmar, Nwe began exploring gender identity through this mythological figure, expanding the motif into a new body of work.
Tomoko Kashiki (b. 1982) offers a contrasting yet equally profound approach to the human figure, utilizing fluid lines and translucent colors evoking the visual language of traditional Japanese painting (nihonga). Searching for Myself gives the impression of a person being drawn into the water's surface, while simultaneously tugging at the world beneath, unfolding a mysterious scene that connects to another realm. Additionally, wildflowers that Kashiki picked as a child in the park — which she describes as "something like heaven" — are meticulously layered into the painting, and tadpoles swimming against the wind evoke a sense of the Pure Land. These dreamlike compositions are achieved through a meticulous process of sanding and repainting acrylic paint, resulting in smooth, multi-layered surfaces.
The figures portrayed in both artists' works are deeply intertwined with cultural and mythological notions of beauty, inviting us to re-examine our perspectives on the world. We hope this exhibition offers a moment to contemplate a primal definition of beauty through their eyes.
