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Kita imbues seemingly mundane tasks with consequence and emotion, freezing them in time.
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“My boundaries” (2021), Japanese cypress and acrylic resin, 16.5 x 30 x 12 centimeters. All images courtesy of the artist and FUMA Contemporary Tokyo | BUNKYO ART, shared with permission
Emotions Manifest as Uncanny Scenarios in Ayako Kita’s Tender Sculptures
November 24, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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Combining hand-carved Japanese cypress with crystal-clear acrylic resin, Ayako Kita sculpts tender, emotive figures. For her current exhibition, The End of the Day Begins at FUMA Contemporary Tokyo, she focuses on the transitional moment of returning home, in which seemingly mundane tasks like switching on a light or opening a curtain are imbued with consequence, frozen in time.
Kita’s work emphasizes an often introspective world, where a young woman or girl’s consciousness, emotions, and anxieties manifest in uncanny scenarios. The titles usually offer important clues, too. In “me & me,” for example, an extra pair of legs is literally tethered to the character’s own limbs, as if another half-formed parallel version of her person is always present. And change is in the air in “Premonition,” where a slightly apprehensive expression is accompanied by a gust of wind.
“Premonition” (2022), Japanese cypress and acrylic resin, 29 x 17 x 11 centimeters
In her most recent work, the figures exhibit expressions of curiosity, thoughtfulness, and faint concern, gazing directly at the viewer, as if seeing us unexpectedly across a room or out a window. “When I began to think about creating a world in which all the pieces would connect as one continuous story, this series naturally came to mind,” Kita says in a statement.
The End of the Day Begins includes works the artist has made throughout the past five years. Her newest pieces combine figures with furnishings and architectural elements, a theme she first explored when she was a student. “Rather than a return to my origins, this production became a time to reaffirm that these scenes still exist vividly within me,” she says.
The End of the Day Begins continues through November 29 in Tokyo. Follow Kita on Instagram for updates. You might also enjoy the multifaceted woodcarvings of Yoshitoshi Kenamaki.
“me & me” (2020), Japanese cypress and acrylic resin, 30 x 22.5 x 15 centimeters
“Night Falls” (2025), Japanese cypress and acrylic resin, 55 x 21.5 x 18.5 centimeters
“Let go of everything” (2024), Japanese cypress and acrylic resin, 33.5 x 20.5 x 14 centimeters
“Causality” (2021), Japanese cypress and acrylic resin, 30 x 30 x 15 centimeters
“Shut Down” (2025), Japanese cypress and acrylic resin, 51 x 30 x 21 centimeters
“Today Ends Here” (2025), Japanese cypress and acrylic resin, 47 x 32 x 26.5 centimters
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All images courtesy of Fabian Oefner, shared with permission
Vibrant Brushstrokes Float in Resin Cubes in Fabian Oefner’s Sculptural Ode to Painting
February 24, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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Frozen inside blocks of clear resin, a series of swirling, gestural brushstrokes appear to float midair. Fabian Oefner is no stranger to the polymer substance, which can be poured into a mold in a liquid form and cured into a solid. In his latest series, Volumen, the artist transforms paint strokes into physical objects with dynamic dimensionality.
Oefner’s practice has often focused on the nature of gravity and motion, suspending objects in physical sculptures or photographing vehicles and machines in the style of exploded diagrams. He sometimes deconstructs items like cameras or sneakers, reassembling them in puzzle-like compositions (previously).
The artist has always been fascinated by the textural quality of paint, especially in the work of Abstract Expressionists who emphasized gestural motions, mark-making, and spontaneity—or at least the appearance of it. Oefner says:
For me, experiencing works like de Kooning’s “Door to the River” or Pollock’s “Lavender Mist” has always been as much a tactile experience as a visual one. These paintings are almost like sculptures to me. What I am doing is removing the canvas entirely and lifting the paint into space, making its physicality completely tangible.
Find more on the artist’s website.
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Art
#animals
#clay
#mythology
#resin
#sculpture
#Toco-Oco
#wax
#wood
August 17, 2022
Grace Ebert More
Art
#animals
#clay
#resin
#sculpture
#wax
#wood
November 8, 2021
Grace Ebert
All images © Toco-Oco, shared with permission
Lara Alcântara and Guilherme Neumann, the duo behind the fantastical figurine maker Toco-Oco, envision an alternate world populated by curious animalistic creatures. Sculpted from a combination of wood, resin, fabric, clay, and wax, the hybrid characters wear garments and masks imprinted with emblems and child-like doodles and express a vast array of emotions that grapple with the strange universe they find themselves in. “It is a world very similar to ours, full of injustices but full of hope,” the pair says in an interview with WePresent. “Our work has reverence for the mystical, natural, and spiritual, trying to rescue this greater connection.”
Based in Brazil, Alcântara and Neumann root each figure in larger narratives often tied to human existence. One character, for example, lugs an oversized, hollowed-out head filled with kindling on its back, a metaphor for a mind overwhelmed by emotion and worries for the future, while smaller busts function as totems with chest cavities and torsos marked by gaping shapes or mythological symbols. A tension between civility and natural instinct is a prominent feature and references “the wild, raw, ruthless, predatory, insatiable, powerful side which is repressed—or worse, is disguised—by the false idea of consciousness,” they say.
Toco-Oco’s sculptures sell out quickly, although they have a pre-sale slated for November 15. Follow updates on that new piece and see more of the otherworldly figures on Behance and Instagram.
#animals
#clay
#resin
#sculpture
#wax
#wood
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