Hitomi

Born in 1991 in Saitama, Japan. Based in Tokyo.

Hitomi listens closely to the subtle perceptions and presences that emerge within relationships between nature and human existence, translating the tactile sensation of being alive—something that cannot be fully articulated through language—into painting.

At the foundation of her practice lies a long engagement with inner conflict and questions of existence. Since childhood, through relationships and dialogue with others, she has pursued self-inquiry while deepening her awareness of sensations and perceptions that exist prior to language.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when opportunities for face-to-face communication became limited, she began pursuing painting more seriously as a means of exploring forms of perception and embodied awareness that could not be fully contained within words.

Working primarily with acrylic, her process unfolds through an ongoing movement between the physical release of energy through gestural strokes and quiet adjustments that attune to subtle shifts and sensations. Opposing elements—reason and intuition, order and chaos, light and shadow—appear within the pictorial space not as conflicts, but as simultaneous states held in resonance.

The floral forms that emerge in her work do not depict specific botanical species. Instead, they appear as what she describes as “flowers as waves of existence” — traces in which the vibration of life momentarily takes form. At times these forms are intentionally guided; at other times they arise naturally through bodily movement and the flow of sensation during the act of painting.

In certain series, Hitomi incorporates the instability and irregularity of washi paper into the support itself, engaging in processes of tearing, loosening, and reconstruction. Through these transformations, traces of time, memory, and breath remain embedded within the material, allowing cycles of change and regeneration to emerge as perceptual phenomena within the work.

Her paintings hold delicacy and boldness, stillness and intensity simultaneously. Within the pictorial space, multiple states of sensation and existence coexist, opening a space in which new relationships and subtle shifts in perception may arise for the viewer.

‍ ‍