The solo exhibition 'A Modest Scream' by soh souen will be held at the art gallery The Mass in Jingumae, Tokyo, from Saturday, November 21, 2020, to Sunday, December 27, 2020.

soh souen is a painter born in Fukuoka in 1995. Since university, they have consistently explored contemporary painting as a corporeal being, focusing on identity, the self, and others. After their early works 'body to body,' drawn from passport photos, they expanded their expressive range to portrait works 'tie' and abstract pastel works 'etude' and 'caress and hug.' They also designed the jacket for Hiroshi Fujiwara's 'slumbers 2,' released in October 2020.

This solo exhibition, 'A Modest Scream,' held at The Mass, is the first exhibition under the new name soh souen, previously known as Hajime Kuwazono.

The 'tie' series consists of works created by rendering passport photos of acquaintances into pixels and then depicting them as a collection of dots through oil painting. The delicate texture of each 6mm square dot and the meticulous grid composition translate the artist's sense of self and their words and thoughts, spun from their relationships with others, onto the canvas through a unique approach. The soft color palette and the contrast with the negative space allow the viewer's eye to form the image, expressing the fragility and strength inherent in the works themselves.

The abstract works 'etude' and 'caress and hug' were created by mixing pigments and earth to make custom pastels, which were then applied directly to paper by hand. Through the process of tracing the paper and engaging in a dialogue with the painted surface, viewers can sense the quiet, rising inner energy. While pastel paintings typically use fixatives to prevent deterioration over time, souen intentionally leaves the pigments unfixed, creating a medium that can be perpetually touched. This is an original expressive method derived from a process that seeks greater corporeality on the canvas. In addition to pastel works, the exhibition will also feature a new installation piece, 'my body, your smell, and ours,' which uses 25 types of herbs and aromatic woods collected based on concepts of healing and purification, evoking the human body.

Regarding this exhibition, soh souen states,
“Self, Other, Pain (bordering on pleasure), Body, Healing,
These are words I jotted down in my notebook when this exhibition was decided.
I don't want these words to lead to a one-sided interpretation of the works,
but as the word 'healing' suggests, I have contemplated these ideas with a sense of hope.
And while experiencing the recovery of my body, feeling the intensity that the act of healing always holds,
with each painting I created, I felt as if I had touched something that gently envelops a being full of vulnerable folds and hollows,
something that is precious.
A fragile, delicate light, things that constantly spill over,
The radiance and texture of the fact of being alive,
The blessing of painting, the blessing of the body.
Things that must never be let go until the very end.”

We invite you to visit this exhibition, which expresses identity through the act of painting, exploring the self, the body, and the existence of others.