Image: IBASHO, Antwerpen
IBASHO will present ‘HAZAMA’, the second solo exhibition by Japanese visual artist Naoyuki Ogino, from 6 September to 25 October 2026 in Antwerp. The exhibition brings together three bodies of work—‘Penumbras Everywhere’, ‘Interwork GOJO’ and ‘Skin’—each examining a different kind of threshold, from the meeting point of light and shadow to the boundaries between artistic disciplines, the body and nature.
The title refers to the Japanese word hazama, meaning “in-between”. According to IBASHO, the idea of a third space where things meet has been central to Ogino’s practice for many years. The exhibition uses that concept as a framework for works that move between photography, abstraction, ceramics and tactile, materially focused processes.
In ‘Penumbras Everywhere’, Ogino photographs overlapping shadows cast by artworks and visitors during the 2024 Venice Biennale. The fleeting forms are transformed into abstract landscapes with an otherworldly quality. The gallery describes the images as reflections on transformation, uncertainty and the intersections of cultures, identities and stories in what it calls today’s multipolar world.
‘Interwork GOJO’ extends the exhibition’s interest in exchange into a collaborative ceramic project. Ogino worked with ceramic artists Hiroaki Kiyomizu, Shinya Taniguchi and Akira Matsuda, with each participant crossing into another artist’s discipline and methods. Ogino made ceramic works using the collaborators’ clay and glazes, while the ceramic artists fired the pieces according to his intentions. The resulting works question conventional ideas of authorship and focus on the creative possibilities produced between practices.
The third series, ‘Skin’, consists of richly textured salt prints addressing the presence and materiality of the female body. The forms evoke both touch and landscape, shifting between body and nature and between reality and myth. The works are anonymous rather than individually identified, and the gallery presents them as reflections on the body as a universal site of memory, connection and transformation. Small salt prints from Ogino’s ‘Womb’ series will be shown alongside them.
Ogino was born in Tokyo in 1975 and raised in Japan and Mexico. He studied physics at Nagoya University before leaving advertising to pursue photography full-time in 2006. That year, he received the Grand Prix of the Japan Photographer’s Union. His work has subsequently been exhibited internationally, including at the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China, the Tashkentale Photo Festival in Uzbekistan and Taiwan Photo, as well as in solo and group exhibitions in Mexico, the United States, Taiwan and Europe.
The vernissage will take place on Sunday 6 September from 14:00 to 18:00 at IBASHO, Tolstraat 67, 2000 Antwerp. The gallery is open Thursday through Sunday from 14:00 to 18:00 and by appointment. On 25 October, the exhibition’s closing day, Ogino will host ‘Shashin Zadan-ten’—a photo-talk-exhibition format he initiated in 2013. The gathering will centre on conversation among a small group seated in the exhibition space and sencha prepared by a certified Japanese green-tea master; registration is required through IBASHO.
