Asami Shoji, The Two Faces of Self

What do the nude bodies, skeletons, and gazes depicted in Asami Shoji’s paintings convey? Discomfort, a sometimes perverse gaze, tenderness, passivity, or a form of physical or psychological restraint. Everything here revolves around duality—bodies, states, and wills.

Born in Fukushima in 1988 and now based in Tokyo, Asami Shoji’s visibility is expanding beyond Asia. While her work is already part of Tokyo’s famed Oketa Collection, 2024 marks a turning point in her career. She will hold her first solo exhibition in Europe, October, Much Ado About Nothing, at the Semiose gallery in Paris (from October 12 to November 16, 2024).

Through these nude figures, ‘pushing the limits of flesh’ as the artist describes it, anxieties and inner turmoil are explored. Boundaries blur and dissolve.

A Personal Diary

The term ‘strangeness’ often comes up when describing her work, and one intriguing detail provides a clue: each piece bears the date of its creation, suggesting that these paintings function as a personal diary, capturing the coexistence of consciences, torn between often contradictory emotions and sensations.

In an essay written for Semiose by Clélia Zernik, professor of art philosophy and associate researcher at the Institute of East Asian Studies, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s films are invoked, where ‘isolated youth undergoes a process of ‘ghosting.’’ Asami Shoji’s work invites the viewer into complex narratives and sensory explorations, urging a journey through consciousness and revealing the multi-dimensionality of existence and how it is perceived.

October, Much Ado About Nothing (2024), an exhibition by Asami Shoji at the Semiose gallery in Paris, from October 12 to November 16, 2024.