After the Nishibeppu Hisayuki Exhibition

This exhibition of Nishibeppu Hisayuki's works is Utsushiki's first special exhibition.

Although it was only a short period of nine days, we were delighted to see so many more people visit the exhibition than we had expected.

I would like to move on to the next thing immediately after finishing this exhibition, but I would like to leave here the words that I felt after finishing the exhibition.

The decision to ask Nishibeppu to host the first exhibition was something I had been thinking about even before opening Utsushiki.

Of course, it is easy to ask him as he is my junior from vocational school, but the main reason is that I simply love his work.

I don't know anyone who seems to enjoy working with plants as much as he does.

This enormous piece is called "Dinosaur Habitat."

We went into the mountains together to look for materials, and I never would have imagined that the ivy we brought with us, holding it in our arms, would end up like this.

Ivy and other plants that I'm sure I've seen on the mountain paths where I usually walk my dog.

This is how it appeared to Nishibeppu.

I was really impressed when an old lady from the neighborhood came to visit and said, "I want this to grow on my premises too. If it grows like this, I want it done on my premises too!"

And personally, my favorite of Nishibeppu's works is the "Forest Spirit" series.

So cute.

While many of the objects Nishibeppu creates are fantastical, what I personally find best about them is that their appearance and expressions are cute but not sweet.

A painting made by gluing together individual eucalyptus leaves.

The color gradations represent layers of time.

Objects that look like real birds,

A "forest specimen" of rare seeds and other things never seen before

Nishibeppu uses his sense of smell to discover plants growing nearby and then transforms them into artworks.

When asked who he would most like to show this exhibition to, he said that he would like Sato-san from Hiiro Ookami, who runs a shop with him in Aoyama, Tokyo, to see it, and I was very happy to hear that.

So it suddenly made sense to me that the two of them were running the shop together.

The Earth is broadly divided into three categories: living things, minerals, and plants.

I create works using minerals, and he creates works using plants.

While he was doing his display he said that plants are live performances, and this comment still sticks in my mind.

It was interesting to watch him and realize once again that although I love plants, I really love minerals.

I can proudly say that I was the one who gained the most from this exhibition.

Nishibeppu is planning to try something different next year, so please look forward to it.

It will become permanent again from Thursday.

We have received some wonderful works, so we are looking forward to introducing them to you.

Once again, thank you to everyone who visited our exhibition and participated in the workshop.

I am grateful for all the various encounters.