biscuit gallery Restraint
UPCOMING EXHIBITION
Kana Mitsunari Solo Exhibition
“Restraint”
biscuit gallery, tokyo / solo exhibition
Restraint
Kana Mitsunari
2026.12.5 [Sat] – 12.20 [Sun]
This December, biscuit gallery presents “Restraint,” a solo exhibition by Kana Mitsunari.
Mitsunari has taken part in “grid4” and “6 drawings vol.3” in 2025, and this is the artist’s first solo exhibition at our gallery space.
Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Kana Mitsunari graduated from the Oil Painting Course, Department of Oil Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Musashino Art University, and went on to the Master’s Program at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts (Oil Painting Techniques and Materials).
Starting from re-enacted footage of things the artist has actually seen, Mitsunari combines different moments and viewpoints to rebuild an image, and turns it into a painting by layering paint. The boundary between still life and figure is another question the artist keeps exploring through the work.
Artist Statement
I have kept records of my daily life in every medium I could: photographs, video, writing, sound and physical objects.
The oldest record that survives is a note I wrote at the age of eight, saying that December had come and we had put up the Christmas tree. Those were the gloomiest days of my life so far, and writing down the rare moments that were not gloomy was something I looked forward to.
Gradually that pleasure turned into a compulsion. I began writing down every conversation I could remember, even the way the other person ended their sentences, and then the date and place of each record, and even what happened while I was writing it.
Life only allows so much time, so most of what I wanted to keep had to be cut away, however painful that was. For the small part I did choose, I tried to record it as accurately and in as much detail as I could. Doing so made me feel I could hold time still.
When I pressed a wooden frame against my body to find the area I should paint, I was reminded once more that what lay outside the frame, the things that would not be painted, far outnumbered what lay inside it. And I wanted, at the very least, to paint the frame itself, as a record of that act and as the boundary of what had been cut out. This is how the Framed series, which is also the main visual of this exhibition, came about.
To paint something is, at the same time, to decide what not to paint. What is cut out as the thing to be painted is made to carry a new context. What is left unpainted, meanwhile, gradually loses its outline.
I felt the same sense of loss when recording the events of daily life.
Only a tiny part, chosen. Yet frighteningly, even that part became more fabricated with every character I added, and I could never keep a single thing exactly as it was.
Even so, I feel that something remaining is happier than loss.
Even if it is a lie, I want to love what remains with all my heart.
2026 Kana Mitsunari
Artist
Kana Mitsunari
b. Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan
Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Graduated from the Oil Painting Course, Department of Oil Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Musashino Art University in 2023, and entered the Master’s Program in Oil Painting Techniques and Materials, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, the same year. Solo exhibitions include “Still Life” (TAKU SOMETANI GALLERY, Tokyo, 2024) and “semi-fiction” (Shimokitazawa Arts, Tokyo, 2023). Group exhibitions include “6 drawings vol.3” (biscuit gallery, 2025), “grid4” (biscuit gallery, 2025) and “Short Short” (Tokyo University of the Arts, 2023).
Opening Party
An opening party will be held at the gallery from 16:00 – 19:00 on Saturday 5 December 2026, the first day of the exhibition. The artist will be present. No reservation is required. Please feel free to drop by.
INFORMATION
ExhibitionKana Mitsunari Solo Exhibition “Restraint”
DatesSaturday 5 December – Sunday 20 December 2026
HoursThu–Sun 13:00 – 19:00 (closed Mon–Wed)
OpeningSaturday 5 December 2026, 16:00 – 19:00 (artist present)
Venuebiscuit gallery (Shinjuku, Tokyo)
AddressMatsui Building 8F, 3-32-10 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0022
AdmissionFree
Contactinfo@biscuitgallery.com
Kana Mitsunari — Artist Page ›
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