Wed. March 4, 2026 – Sat. April 4, 2026

Gallery Yamaki Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of new works by photographer Kirico. This marks her third solo exhibition at our gallery.

The presentation consists of two series, Self Portrait and Object, created following the artist’s experience of undergoing a hysterectomy on March 4, 2025.

The loss of an organ is not merely a medical procedure; it brings subtle changes to bodily perception and awareness of identity. As time passes, wounds heal and daily routines continue as though nothing has occurred. Unnoticed by others and at times almost forgotten even by the self— Kirico turns her attention to this ambiguous sensation and contemplates the quiet yet persistent sense of being alive that rises in the aftermath of loss.

In Self-Portrait, photographed before and after the operation, the absence of an organ, something that cannot in itself appear in an image, is conveyed through subtle differences within the continuity of time. In doing so, the series quietly poses a question that touches upon the essence of photography as a medium: how can that which cannot be made visible find expression?

In contrast, Object reconstructs the artist’s own uterus, already discarded, as sculptural form using medical documentation as reference. This gesture of restoring what has vanished into material presence is both an act of re-creation and a process of reflection through which absence is acknowledged and integrated into lived experience. By moving between photographic expression and three dimensional form, the exhibition proposes another way of perceiving the body that is no longer present.

Throughout her practice, Kirico has explored intimate relationships and the female body, opening personal experience toward broader human concerns. In this exhibition, a deeply private event expands into reflection on bodily memory, continuity of existence, and the fundamental question of what it means to live. Within the flow of time that inclines toward forgetting, how might the memory of what has disappeared remain active in the present?

Through a quiet awareness situated between loss and renewal, this exhibition offers an opportunity to reconsider our own physical being and the condition of life.

《Related Event》

An artist talk with  Kirico (exhibiting artist) and Mariko Takeuchi (critic/writer) is scheduled.

This event requires reservations. Please book via the URL below.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdpTv8Bo-evAX6hrWp0v90uZlARzh6RK6p9oCOQiPZkYuXhlA/viewform

Date: Saturday, March 28, 2026, (4:00 PM – 5:00 PM)
Venue: Gallery Yamaki Fine Art
Admission: Free　

Mariko TAKEUCHI
Born in Tokyo in 1972. Critic and writer. Graduated from Waseda University’s School of Political Science and Economics; completed a master’s degree in art studies at Waseda University’s Graduate School of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Moved to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship in 2008. After serving as a visiting researcher at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and the National Museum of Art, Osaka, she is currently a professor at Kyoto University of the Arts. She contributes widely to domestic and international publications and has curated numerous exhibitions. Her solo publications include Toward the Sea of Contradictions (Akkakusha, 2025) and Silence and Image ─ Essays On Japanese Photographers ─ (Akkakusha, 2018).　Her editorial and translation projects include Jonathan Togovnik’s Afterwards: Born from the Rwandan Genocide (Akkakusha, 2020) and I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now (Aperture, 2024), among many others. Resides in Kyoto Prefecture.