Taka Ishii Gallery Kyoto is pleased to present “Waiting 100 Million Light Years Away”, an exhibition of new works by Kyoko Murase. The artist’s first solo exhibition at Taka Ishii Gallery Kyoto features a wall drawing in addition to a group of new drawings and paintings.

A lot of time can pass unnoticed when I’m in front of a picture. I feel a lot of time passes not simply drawing or painting an image, but also leading up to the moment of making an image. It seems as if I am depicting a moment, but the image includes multiple histories including times of doubt and uncertainty, which may indeed be a kind of entry into the work. Even if you enter the work, however, you may find that things are in flux, which can be simultaneously comforting and disturbing. I want to make the viewer vacillate and lose her sense of stability, by using unpleasant colors for example, and also rub myself the wrong way at the same time. The aim is to enrich the viewer’s sensibility without setting a clear goal.
- Shin Fukunaga, “Artist Interview: Kyoko Murase,” Bijutsu Techo, July 2010.

Throughout her oeuvre, Murase has continually produced new works with slight changes in subject matter. The resulting works, however, do not indicate a specific destination. Despite the figurative nature of her images, various elements, such as color selection, composition, and the texture of the paint on the canvas, create a place that is in flux and has no exit. The resulting labyrinthine site leads viewers to produce a wide range of interpretations. In Murase’s newest drawings and installation, the acts of drawing and being drawn produce an entrance into the picture.