Born in 1999, Hidehiko Iijima graduated from Aichi University of the Arts, Faculty of Arts, with a major in Design. Making his figure early, Iijima was selected at the competition “Hyaku-nin-ten”(means: ten of one hundred people). Then, he was awarded consecutively at “Independent Tokyo 2022” (Grand-Prix) and “WATOWA ART AWARD 2022”. His work was displayed not only at the group shows in various locations in Japan, but also at the art fairs in the Netherlands and Taiwan. In 2023, his first solo exhibition was held in Tokyo (Gallery Tagboat). ‘Shredded, and destroyed stuffed toys’ that Iijima represents symbolize the frailness of human nature. While harshness or ungainliness is the synonym for violence or maliciousness, it is the flip side of “sham courage”, a sad attribute of human beings. Iijima does not look away from this reversal point. Because he knows this is the smoothest whereabouts of his theme, ‘comprehension of others as a continuation of self-assertion’.

Born in Kyoto in 1995, Ayami Ueda graduated from the Seian University of Art and Design, Fine Arts Department, with a major in Painting in 2018, consequently completed her study as a research student in 2019. She was awarded at “Kyo-ten 80th Anniversary Exhibition” (2016), “the 35th Ueno Royal Museum Grand Prize Exhibition” (2017), and the competition of SOMPO Museum of Art “FACE 2023” (2023: Mae Moritani Jury Award). As well as the group shows in various locations, she held solo exhibitions in Kyoto and Shiga (2017, 2021). The paintings of Ueda, in which her concept “a quest for distance through the body” is integrated, depart from the photographed landscapes. Most of the landscapes represented by Ueda include reflective structures like glasses and mirrors because the outline of the reflected body can be looked at objectively. The outline of the body, which is away from “awareness of myself”, will be blended with the sceneries around, synchronized with the gaze of others, and finally become of a vestige of the passing. A flickering image before a word like negative film burned into the memory. The gaze always explores somewhere not here.

Born in 1990, Hitomi Endo graduated from Tokyo Zokei University with a major in Fine Arts in 2019. Endo was awarded consecutively ‘SOMPO Japan Special Award’ at “the 33rd Nichiyo-kai Exhibition”(2019) as well as ‘Tokyo Slider Award’ at “the 16th World Art Exhibition” (2020). In 2021, her work was accepted at the competition of SOMPO Museum of Art “FACE 2021”. In the following year, she was selected for the Grand-Prix at the 10th Exhibition “Debut2022”, a new face award for art hosted by Japanese monthly art magazine “Gekkan Bijyutsu”, receiving a unanimous vote from the jury: as the award’s privilege, a solo exhibition “A horse dreams as usual” was held in Tokyo. She was also awarded in succession at “Idemitsu Art Award 2022” and “FACE 2023”. Endo is considered as one of the most anticipated artists in the recent art scene. Her style, in which the core of the heart gazed tenderly blending with the landscape, has an exquisite visional and fresh presence. Her layered construction that beats a rhythm with its sensitive coloration invites the viewer to the unusual by its distinctive fluctuation and rhythmic movement.

Born in Tokyo, Romana Machin Tanimura graduated from Tohoku University of Art and Design, Art Department, with a major in Oil Painting (‘award of excellence’ at the exhibition of graduation project) in 2020. Consecutively, she got her master’s degree from the same university and department (specialty in Culture and the Arts) in 2023. By representing the symbols of people’s childishness and obsession such as polyvinyl chlorides or figures of imaginary heroes and monsters beyond the limit of painting, Romana Machin Tanimura has been opening a crack drastically in the conventional context of ‘art’. Intense visual impact and usage of materials that blow the viewer’s mind, and playfulness of words from which contingency is totally removed－her uniqueness has been the focus of attention. At the previous group exhibition “Dimensions” which was held in the Whitestone Ginza New Gallery in 2021, her works caught the eyes of art collectors. The artist comes back to Whitestone living up to expectations.

Born in Hokkaido in 2001, Yuzuki Nakanishi graduated from Tokyo Zokei University with a major in Fine Arts in 2022. In the same year, she participated in “the 24th Mitsui Fudosan Retail Management Office Exhibition”. In 2023, her work was selected at the “Tokyo Five Art Colleges’ Degree Show” (the National Art Center). Nakanishi chooses the colors according to the mood of each time, and estimates fluidity and eventuality of the paints as the primary goal. Although she says ‘when the work is completed, the title curiously rises to the surface as if it was the matter of course’, what is reflected in this kind of improvisasional one-shot should be the inevitable product of her own aesthetic framework arising from daily life. Nakanishi is the artist who embodies the possibility of fluid art.

Born in Nagaoka, Niigata prefecture in 2000, LICACO graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, with a major in Oil Painting in 2023. While still in university, LICACO was awarded the ‘Keiichiro Kume Prize”, which was targeted at high achievers in both of the oil painting and sculpture courses. In 2021, her first solo exhibition was held in her hometown, Nagaoka. ‘Affection for human beings, who have no choice but to live bearing complexity and vagueness’ is raised as the theme of her creation, LICACO represents it though the mediums like oil painting and copperplate engraving. Feeling at the bottom of the heart or accumulation of memories that is fostered unconsciously－the artist aspires to invoke its source. Her exquisite style expressing weirdness, quietness, and nostalgia at the same time including its prosaic and unfinished titles synchronizes the viewer’s sensation with her art.