This exhibition features works by Yonebiki Tenko and Kanamaru Yūji. Yonebiki creates surreal images with Japanese paper and oil pastels, while Kanamaru builds cross – cultural memories with mixed materials. They use plants and animals as guides to present an open narrative field and evoke spiritual connections.
Yuji Kanamaru | Capital of the age, 2025, Acrylic, mineral pigments on board, 72.7 × 91.0 cm
Whitestone Gallery Beijing is honored to present The Realm of Tales, a duo exhibition featuring Japanese artists Nobuko Watabiki (b. 1958) and Yuji Kanamaru (b. 1978), on view from July 5 through August 9, 2025. This exhibition brings together two distinct artistic practices that intertwine imagination, memory, and poetic visual language to form a resonant dialogue between reality and fantasy.
Working with Japanese paper and oil pastels, Nobuko Watabiki merges botanical motifs with human figures to construct surreal, contemplative scenes. Her work investigates the fluid boundaries of selfhood as seen through the eyes of others, raising questions about identity, perception, and emotional connection. For Watabiki, plants are not only visual motifs but also emotional vessels that invite introspection and silent dialogue.
Yuji Kanamaru blends fragments of linen, English newspaper clippings, and other materials, repeatedly layering vibrant yet gentle colors to create a dry, dreamlike texture that seems imbued with the weathered traces of time. The fantastical creatures and exotic cityscapes that appear in his works speak to his childhood experiences in the Middle East, forming a cross-cultural visual memory. He skillfully fuses foreign sensibilities with a deep sense of nostalgia, crafting a world that is both enchanting and uniquely his own.
In The Realm of Tales, Watabiki and Kanamaru use imagery of plants and animals as central threads, weaving together personal and cultural memory within an open-ended, multilayered visual space. Rather than presenting linear stories, the exhibition evokes an intangible yet deeply felt emotional resonance, inviting viewers to enter a hidden kingdom where silent flora, whispering fauna, and ephemeral winds coalesce.
