Whitestone Gallery Karuizawa is pleased to announce the much-revered sculptor Masayuki Tsubota’s solo exhibition: Unknown Memory. “Unknown memory” implies “the eerie sense” that everyone experiences when they are children, perhaps while playing in the mountains or along the riverside.

Learning about wooden architecture such as ancient temples presented the artist an opportunity to create wooden sculptures. One day, Tsubota sensed a presence from his artwork painted with red pigments, which was placed behind him. Since then, this “sense” has been one of the primary themes that has inspired the sculptor.

Tsubota observed that humans are divided by their races, religions, languages, economics, and so on. The fact that the human retina is distinctive, depending on the race of an individual, allows people to see differently even when they look at the same colour. How does this sense called “unknown memory” affect humans, who are diversified by these elements, when they observe his works? This is the main theme around which his exhibition is structured.

Tsubota’s artworks attract art audience through their unique usage of colours, wood – which is a living material and breathes ever after it has been shaved, their form that has distinctive vibrations, and the shadows cast by his works. His drawings and installations, which are open to the public for the first time, will be on display in this exhibition. We cordially invite you to enjoy this spectacular presentation of ideas, colours, art, and imagination.