Host | Mizuma Art Gallery
Guest | Asia Art Center
Artists | Charlotte Keates, AOYAMA Satoru, SHINTSUBO Kenshu
Dates | 13-16 November 2025
VIP Preview
Thursday, November 13 *by invitation only
1pm-2pm First Choice
2pm-4pm Collectors' Preview
4pm-7pm Vernissage
General Audience
Fri, Nov 14 11:00-12:00 VIP hour | 12:00-19:00 Public hour
Sat, Nov 15 11:00-12:00 VIP hou r | 12:00-19:00 Public hour
Sun, Nov 16 11:00-17:00 Public hour
Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK) is one of Japan's leading contemporary art fairs, celebrated for fostering collaboration between Japanese and international galleries while showcasing the unique cultural spirit of Kyoto. Supported by Kyoto Prefecture, the Contemporary Art Dealers Association Nippon (CADAN), and other official and professional organizations, ACK features a carefully curated selection of top galleries from Japan and abroad. Known for its artistic rigor and wide-reaching influence, ACK has become a highlight of the art calendar and one of the most distinctive fairs in the gallery world.
In this edition, Asia Art Center and Mizuma Art Gallery jointly present works by Charlotte Keates, Satoru AOYAMA, and Kenshu SHINTSUBO, under the thematic dialogue "–scape."
Founded in Tokyo in 1994, Mizuma Art Gallery also has a branch in Singapore. A long-time participant at Art Basel Hong Kong, Mizuma Art Gallery has been instrumental in introducing East and Southeast Asian artists to the global stage. Its roster includes Makoto AIDA, Manabu IKEDA, Akira YAMAGUCHI, and Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, among others. Highlights of its programming include the planning of ZIPANGU, a traveling exhibition of Japanese contemporary art that toured major museums across Japan,, as well as the establishment of Rumah Kijang Mizuma, an artist-in-residence program in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, through which the gallery has actively promoted international cultural exchange.
For this collaboration, Asia Art Center presents eight new paintings by British artist Charlotte Keates, constructing an immersive spatial environment centered around the notion of the "portal." Through motifs such as doors, windows, corridors, and circular compositions suggesting movement and passage, Keates invites viewers to step into her imagined spaces—where the warmth of the interior and the vibrancy of the outdoors coexist. Her nuanced observation of spatial planning, materials, reflection, and light creates compositions that are both structured and richly layered. The tactile quality of her brushstrokes and the vivid color palette convey a sincerity and immediacy that reflect her emotional engagement with the act of painting. At times, architecture recedes to reveal lush greenery enveloping the built environment, underscoring her ongoing exploration of space as something organic, intimate, and alive.
Reflecting on her new works for ACK, Keates notes:
"For me, these eight paintings are an in-depth exploration of the mark of the brush. Over the past year, this collaboration has been central to both my creative process and my thinking. I feel that these works take that exploration to another level. Each panel is built up with layers of paint and lines that create a sense of texture and density. I hope this series conveys an atmosphere of energy and freedom—both in the process and in the feeling it gives."
Earlier this year, Keates collaborated with Hermès, transforming her paintings into three-dimensional installations. Maintaining her signature vivid palette, she translated her pictorial language into tangible forms that evoke the vitality of everyday life. When installed in the Hermès windows and terrace, her works created a striking visual dialogue between contemporary art and the refinement of luxury craftsmanship.
At the same booth, Mizuma Art Gallery will present new works by Japanese artists AOYAMA Satoru (b. 1973, Tokyo) and SHINTSUBO Kenshu (b. 1968, Tokyo). Aoyama employs industrial sewing machines in his embroidery-based practice, continually questioning humanity and the value of labor in the post-industrial era while expanding the expressive possibilities of embroidery as an artistic medium. His recent works focus on the theme of "the disappearing," and in his new piece Foundscape, he reconstructs forgotten or lost landscapes from memory and documentation through intricate threadwork. Shintsubo's practice centers on photography while extending to moving images, drawing, and diary-like fragments. Through these mediums, he explores the serendipity, continuity, and embodied sense of time that emerge from his encounters with places and others, inscribing them into his works. In this exhibition, he also weaves into his imagery the quiet presence of people that coexist with the landscape.
