Takanori SUGA: Of Silk and Soil

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Boogie Woogie Photography, Hong Kong and MUG gallery, Tokyo are pleased to present a solo exhibition of Japanese artist Takanori Suga in the loft in Wong Chuk Hang.

Born in Nagasaki in 1985 to a family immersed in language and art, Suga grew up in a creative household, flanked by siblings who are also artists today. Trained in classical oil painting at Nagoya’s renowned art university, Suga’s practice has always defied boundaries—his canvases extend far beyond the traditional frame. From painting on the human body and creating murals on abandoned buildings, to working with unconventional support s such as his grandmother’s beloved silk kimonos, temple sculptures, and even animal bones, Suga’s work weaves together disparate materials and histories. His art has adorned department store halls on the eve of their demolition and spilled into the natural landscape, always incorporating the memories and emotions of the places and people he encounters.

The exhibition’s title, Of Silk and Soil symbolizes this duality at the heart of Suga’s work. “Silk” refers to the precious kimonos once worn by his grandmother, now transformed into living canvases bearing the delicate weight of family memory and cultural heritage. “Soil,” meanwhile, refers to the earth itself—the literal ground onwhich Suga discovered and painted deer skulls, and a metaphor for origins, decay, and rebirth that also connects to his recent and intensive land art projects. Through these two materials,Suga’s work is rooted in the cycle of life and death, weaving together the refined and the raw, the remembered and the found. Suga’s global practice reflects his belief that nothing is ever one-sided. For him, painting transcends the canvas, and beauty cannot exist without ugliness, just as life is inseparable from death. By inverting and layering these dualities—front and back, centre and periphery, sublime and impure—Suga exposes their deep interdependence.

Hong Kong, a city of striking contrasts where extremes coexist, offers a fitting backdrop for Suga’s first solo exhibition here. The show features works painted on vintage Japanese kimonos, oil paintings on wearable shoes, and new pieces from his celebrated series of deer skulls. Together, these artworks evoke the tension between the beautiful garments humans compete to wear and the mortal bodies hidden beneath. For Suga, sublimity and impurity are not contradictions—they are inseparable, coexisting in every facet of existence.