NISHIO is well known for his technique referred to as ‘negative casting’, which he molds fiber plaster sculptures using his fingers only. Some of his memorable pieces made with this technique include the five-meter long battleship ‘Minsk’ and the six-meter wide female warrior ‘Sayla Mass’. NISHIO is also known for his delicate ‘apparition’ sumi ink paintings, which are intrigued by his unusual inspiration for unreal existence such ghosts.  

Clear impulses exist behind NISHIO’s works, and many of them are motivated by fear.

The theme behind his work relates to his past experience and anxiety about his own existence.

From a drowning accident in NISHIO’s boyhood, the absolute necessary element of life troubled him.

The solution he came up with in order to escape the horror of water was to ‘become a fish’.

If one is capable of gill breathing, the connection between water and death will be untied.

NISHIO’s third solo exhibition at YAMAMOTO GENDAI includes his newest three-dimensional
pieces – the ‘Mermaids’. Rather than resembling something realistic, NISHIO presents us an
evolutionistic process of humanity becoming aquatic.