Women in Abstraction
Artists
Midori Arai, Misako Kon, Reina Mikame
Dates
7 June – 5 July 2025
Time
11 am – 7 pm (Closed on Sunday and National Holiday) (until 5pm at the last day)
Venue
Gallery Hayashi
Opening Reception
7 June 6 – 8 pm
GALLERY HAYASHI + ART BRIDGE is pleased to present Women in Abstraction, a group exhibition featuring Japanese abstract painters Midori Arai, Misako Kon, and Reina Mikame. The exhibition will open Saturday, 7 June with a 6 – 8 pm opening reception at the gallery , open to the public.
In recent years, female abstract artists have gained increasing recognition, reflected in landmark exhibitions such as Women of Abstract Expressionism (Denver Art Museum, 2016), Women in Abstraction (Centre Pompidou, 2021), and Women and Abstraction (National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 2023). These shows have helped to re-evaluate artists like Hilma af Klint, Georgia O’Keeffe, Joan Mitchell, Yuki Katsura, and Mami Mori, painters whose work was often sidelined in a male-dominated art world. Today, their legacy continues to inspire and resonate. Following this global shift, Women in Abstraction spotlights three contemporary Japanese artists working within abstraction – each with a distinct voice and approach.
Midori Arai, who has lived with physical frailty since childhood, explores the theme of “living in the moment” through instinctive, gestural brushwork. Her practice becomes a form of self-documentation. In an art history shaped by Western male perspectives, Arai’s use of traditional materials from Western abstraction takes on a quiet defiance, asserting her place as both a Japanese and female artist within that narrative.
Misako Kon works with cosmetics such as lipstick, foundation, and eyeshadow, applying them to paper to create vivid, pink-toned abstractions. These materials, often associated with femininity and appearance, are reimagined as tools for introspection. Layer by layer, Kon’s daily use of cosmetics becomes a metaphor for self-exploration and existence, each piece reading like a portrait of her inner life. Her minimalist, conceptual choice to title each work with its date of completion echoes On Kawara’s Date Paintings.
Reina Mikame draws from nature, light, and landscape. Through her work appears detached from specific locations, it emerges from years of study and observation. Like Georgia O’Keeffe, who transformed natural motifs into monumental images, Mikame distils her environment into abstract forms. Her series Building the Image of Lines and The Face explore light and dimensionality in subtle, layered compositions.
Through all three artists work within abstraction, their approaches vary: Arai channels action painting; Kon merges minimalism and conceptualism; Mikame moves between figuration and abstraction in her study of light. Abstract painting remains a space of freedom, diversity, and boundless potential. In a field long dominated by men, it continues to offer vital visibility to those historically pushed to the margins.
Artists Profile
Midori Arai, Enduring Lines #11, 2025, Pencil, pastel and oil on canvas, H1173 × W913 × D40 mm
Midori Arai was born in Ibaraki, Japan, in 1992. She earned her BA in Fine Arts from Tokyo Zokei University in 2015 and completed an MA in Oil Painting at Kyoto University of the Arts in 2022. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Fine Arts at Tama Art University. Arai explores the infinite potential of painting through the lens of finite physical gestures. Her dynamic brushwork invites the viewer to trace the movements of her body, transforming action into an experience that reflects on life and the passage of time. In 2023, Arai’s work was featured alongside pieces by Hisao Domoto and Toshimitsu Imai who are key figures of the Art Informal movement in Paris, at Art Fair Tokyo 2023 (GALLERY HAYASHI + ART BRIDGE booth). The presentation was widely praised for its dialogue between past and present expressions of abstraction. Her recent solo exhibition Border Strokes (WALL_shinjuku, 2024) and duo exhibition Contraction and Removal (HIRO OKAMOTO, 2023), further explored themes of gender, the body and physical presence.
Misako Kon, 2025.04.01, 2025, Cosmetics, paper on panel, H803 × W606 × D62 mm
Misako Kon was born in Tokyo in 1991. She graduated from the School of Art and Design at the University of Tsukuba in 2014 and went on to complete an MA at the university’s School of Comprehensive Human Sciences in 2016. Kon applies cosmetics such as lipstick, foundation, and eyeshadow to paper, treating these materials as extensions of her own body. She considers each work a self-portrait, with the surface capturing traces of her daily life. By titling each piece with the date of its completion, she records subtle shifts in mood and presence, expressed through delicate colour and layered texture. Her recent exhibitions include Breath at LOKO Gallery (2024), Keep Going Toward the Light at Galerie Tokyo Humanite bis (2023), and VOCA 2016 at The Ueno Royal Museum (2016).
Reina Mikame, Building the Image of Lines, 2025, Oil on canvas、H910 × W1167 mm
Reina Mikame
She captures everyday life scenes, tracing the source of their impressions and pursues painterly expressions concerning human perception through repeated contemplation. Born in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, Japan in 1992. Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts (M.F.A.) in 2017. Selected solo exhibitions include: Looking at the line at Yutaka Kikutake Gallery, Tokyo(2021); Looking at the color at Yutaka Kikutake Gallery, Tokyo(2020); project N 69 Reina Mikame at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo(2017). Based in Tokyo, Shizuoka, and Aichi, Japan.
Courtesy of Yutaka Kikutake Gallery