Mika Kasai “I painted a huge picture today.”
11/16 (Sat)-12/14 (Sat), 2024
Opening hours: 12:00-19:00 (Wed-Sat)
Closed on Sun, Mon, Tue and National Holidays
Mika Kasai (b. 1989) graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2022 and continues to develop her practice in Nagano, Japan. She is set to begin studies at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2025.
Her practice centers around collage, using acrylic paint and paper materials drawn from everyday life—such as candy boxes, Amazon packaging, and other discarded paper waste. She also sources accessible materials in bulk from home improvement and art supply stores. These are gathered in her studio, where she cuts them into various sizes and shapes, paints them with acrylic, and layers and connects them into unified compositions. The result is a body of work defined by unique color choices and combinations of forms that reward prolonged viewing.
A recurring thread in Kasai’s work is her distinctive bird’s-eye perspective—a way of looking at the world from above, with a view toward the whole. She draws from her own photographs, taken as part of an ongoing personal archive, as well as visual references such as traditional Japanese picture scrolls "Emaki" and "Nara Ehon"—illustrated manuscripts from the early modern period. These source images are stored in large quantities in her studio and serve as informal references in her making process.
As she explains, “It’s not about a specific person or object, a story, or a clear idea or principle—it’s something else.” Rather than focusing on defined subjects, her work explores the ambiguous spaces surrounding things—the atmosphere, the margins, the broader context. The exhibition title, “I painted a huge picture today.”, reflects this attitude: regardless of the actual scale of the work, each piece contains that elusive “something else” Kasai seeks to convey.
Installation View
Works
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Mika Kasai, untitled, 2024, acrylic on paper, masking tape, timber, thumbtack, 26.8 x 45.5 cm
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Mika Kasai, untitled, 2024, acrylic on paper, 42 x 86.8 cm
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Mika Kasai, untitled, 2024, acrylic on paper, 27.3 x 36.8 cm
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Mika Kasai, untitled, 2024, acrylic, pencil on paper, 12 x 43 cm
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Mika Kasai, untitled, 2024, acrylic on paper, thumbtack, polyester band, canvas sheet, canvas frame, 32.7 x 44 cm
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Mika Kasai, untitled, 2024, acrylic on timber, thumbtack, canvas sheet, 13 x 16.7 cm
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Mika Kasai, untitled, 2024, acrylic on paper, masking tape, 36.5 x 52.9 cm
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Mika Kasai, untitled, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 65.2 x 50.3 cm
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Mika Kasai, untitled, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 38 x 31 cm
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Mika Kasai, untitled, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 30.5 x 38 cm
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Mika Kasai, untitled, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 48.3 x 38.7 cm