We are pleased to present “See You Tomorrow,” a solo exhibition by Kensuke Koike at Akio Nagasawa Gallery Aoyama.

Born in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture in 1980, Koike is a contemporary artist based in Venice, Italy. After studying at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia and completing his degree in Visual Arts at the Iuav University of Venice, he has exhibited extensively around the world.

Koike is known for his unique technique of creating new imagery by cutting, rearranging, and reassembling vintage photographs and postcards sourced from flea markets etc.

Until now, Koike has worked primarily with vintage photographs from the West. In this exhibition, however, he presents a new body of work created using archival photographs from Japan’s Meiji era—a first in his artistic practice.

We invite you to take this opportunity to experience Koike’s latest works.

Artist Statement

Even when people are no longer present, traces of them remain somewhere. Old photographs and memories quietly blend into our daily lives, like silent ghosts.

In this work, fragments of old portraits and landscapes are cut out and reassembled—only once—into a new image. From a distance, a familiar presence seems to emerge, but as one draws closer, the contours blur and the image becomes increasingly ambiguous. This mirrors how memory fades and becomes uncertain over time.

Each piece is composed solely of fragments from original photographs. No new elements are added. Because of this, the reassembled images naturally absorb the atmosphere of the past—the subtle presence of memory. Yet their forms shift and evolve. Like DNA passed down through generations, memory persists, taking on new shapes as it continues through time.

"See You Tomorrow" is an ordinary phrase, exchanged casually at the end of the day. But when that promise goes unfulfilled, what lingers is the sense of absence—and the silence of a goodbye that may never be reversed.

This exhibition reflects on how memory, connection, and what remains are gradually eroded by the passage of time. What one sees in these increasingly blurred images is left to the viewer’s own memories and imagination.

– Kensuke Koike