Women in Abstraction: Landscape

Artists
Mio Ito, Momoka Ota, Yukari Suematsu

Dates
18 October – 15 November 2025

Time
11:00 – 19:00 (Closed on Sunday and National Holiday) (until 5pm at the last day)

Venue
Gallery Hayashi

Opening Reception
18 October 6 – 8pm

GALLERY HAYASHI + ART BRIDGE is delighted to announce the group exhibition Women in Abstraction: Landscape. This exhibition spotlights female artists who work in abstract painting. This second edition of the series takes landscape as its sub-theme and will showcase works by three artists: Mio Ito, Momoka Ota, and Yukari Suematsu. The exhibition will run from Saturday, 18 October 2025 to Saturday, 15 November 2025.

The opening reception will be held on 18 October from 6 – 8 pm.

Globally, the abstract expression of women artists is undergoing a significant re-evaluation and repositioning. This exhibition, Women in Abstraction, contributes to this major trend, specifically by highlighting the work of contemporary Japanese female abstract expressionists in its second instalment. Following an initial focus on the diversity of abstraction, this edition turns to the theme of landscape. While landscape historically required an objective view of the external world, abstract painting liberates the genre, allowing artists to project their introspective consciousness, memories, and personal relationships onto the subject. Our three featured artists challenge traditional perspectives, revealing new possibilities for the landscape motif through their distinct approaches to abstraction.

Mio Ito attempts to capture fleeting moments and the ever-changing nature of the view within her work. She sees painting as a device that can preserve a moment of landscape, allowing it to be recalled at any time, even though the actual scenery inevitably changes. Ito’s process is characterised by layering colours multiple times and then deliberately scraping or wiping them away to bring the underlying colours and textures to the surface. The past brushstrokes and colours that emerge on the canvas through the repetition of ‘painting’ and ‘erasing’ represent a temporal depth, prompting the viewer to recall the sequence of events that led to the specific moment of landscape Ito witnessed.

Momoka Ota takes the mountains she sees in her daily life as her subject. Harnessing the heavy, material quality of oil paint, she conveys the overwhelming presence she feels from these mountains onto the canvas. Her approach is not merely about tracing their contours; it’s an effort to capture the mountain’s inherent atmosphere, alongside the temperature and wind of the current season. Ota’s works possess a striking power that allows viewers to look beyond the visible landscape and imagine the trees and the human activity nestled within.

Yukari Suematsu creates abstract paintings inspired by nature and urban landscapes. She employs acrylics, using blurring and staining techniques that recall Colour Field Painting pioneers like Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler. Her compositions also integrate a Japanese aesthetic through the effective use of negative space. Suematsu’s work aims to generate an experiential space prompting the viewer to confront themselves, society, and the times.

In “Women in Abstraction: Landscape”, Mio Ito, Momoka Ota, and Yukari Suematsu each expand the potential of abstract painting through their individual perspectives and techniques, unified by the common subject of landscape. We invite you to view these depictions of landscape, realised through the delicate yet powerful sensibilities of these artists living in the present day.

Artists

Orange, 2025, Oil on canvas, H350 × W270 mm

Mio Ito (b. 1995, Tottori, Japan) finds a kinship between her practice and the flow of time in nature. She creates her works by linking the randomness in a beautiful scene created by nature with the balance of chance in her own brushstrokes.
Ito received an MFA in painting from Musashino Art University in Tokyo and a BA in painting from Musashino Art University in Tokyo. The artist’s work has been exhibited at GALLERY HAYASHI + ART BRIDGE (Tokyo), Kodama Gallery (Tokyo), CLEAR GALLERY (Tokyo), BLANKgallery (Shanghai), KATSUYA SUSUKI GALLERY (Tokyo), Higashikasai Warehouse A (Tokyo), LOOP HOLE (Tokyo), and tatabookshop and gallery (Tokyo), among others. Ito lives and works in Tokyo, Japan.
This exhibition is the artist’s third presentation at our gallery, following her solo show “Excuse the petals for their beauty, caught in the spider’s web” (5 – 22 June 2024) and the group show “DELTA South” (26 – 29 September 2025).

Dream (See it in the morning), 2025, Oil on canvas, H910 × W727 mm

Momoka Ota (b. 1997, Shizuoka, Japan) creates work based on her own life and everyday scenes, including mountains, which have long been a significant motif in art history. By facing the canvas with an affinity for both the mountain and her own creative activity, she expresses both the scenery of the mountains and everyday life, and her own existence.
Ota received an MFA in painting and printmaking from the Aichi University of the Arts in Aichi and a BA in painting from Kyoto University of the Arts. The artist’s work has been exhibited at GALLERY HAYASHI + ART BRIDGE (Tokyo), Kaikai Kiki Gallery (Tokyo), GASBON METABOLISM (Yamanashi), Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi (Tokyo), and ARTISTS’ FAIR KYOTO 2021. Ota lives and works in Ibaraki, Japan.
This exhibition is her third presentation at our gallery, following the group shows “Abstracting The Reality” (7 – 23 April 2023) and “WHAT CAFE EXHIBITION vol. 24” (15 – 26 February 2023).

Lives Unseen, 2025, Acrylic on canvas, H1167 × W910 mm

Yukari Suematsu (b. 1987, Saitama, Japan) received her BA in painting from Tama Art University. A recipient of the Idemitsu Art Award Special Award (2017) and the Holbein Scholarship (2020), she has exhibited widely, including a solo show as part of Project N at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery (2019) and an Artist-in-Residence in Finland (2022). Suematsu’s practice explores themes of polarity within the individual and society. Her abstract works symbolise specific personal experiences and questions, aiming to create a dialogue with the viewer about universal human experiences. She has recently expanded her work into commercial collaborations, including textile products and key visuals for nationwide promotions. This is her second presentation at the gallery.