SAWAKO NASU

1st April - 6th May, 2026

Richeldis Fine Art presents an exhibition of new works by Sawako Nasu, an emerging Japanese painter whose work was recently acquired into the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (April 2026). Nasu’s (b. 1996, Tokyo, Japan) practice centres on the slow construction of image through repeated layers of translucent pigment. Working with minimal variation and a reduced palette, Nasu develops surfaces that resist immediacy. Forms emerge gradually, held in suspension between appearance and disappearance, where painting becomes less an image than a process unfolding over time.

Rather than depicting landscape, her works establish the conditions through which it may be perceived. Subtle shifts in tone suggest horizon, atmosphere, and distance, while withholding fixed orientation. The surface operates as a threshold—filtering light, depth, and memory—where each layer alters the visual temperature while suppressing evidence of gesture. The works presented in Barcelona, produced in 2026, mark a further development in her approach to scale, repetition, and segmentation. A new emphasis on horizontal extension expands the field of vision laterally, inviting a more durational mode of viewing. Alongside these, a stitched work measuring 360 cm in length brings together multiple postcard-sized canvases into a continuous sequence. Each unit retains its own boundary, yet contributes to a larger, cumulative field. Across triptych structures, vertically assembled panels, and stitched sequences, Nasu continues her investigation into how an image can remain open—constructed through intervals rather than resolved into a singular composition. Meaning does not reside in any one part, but emerges across relationships, pauses, and repetitions. In these works, landscape is not represented but assembled—formed through the viewer’s perception as fragments cohere into provisional wholes. Continuity is not given, but constructed: a quiet act of recognition shaped by time, memory, and attention.

Sawako Nasu (b. 1998, Tokyo, Japan) lives and works in Tokyo. She holds a BFA and MFA from Tokyo University of the Arts.

Selected Exhibitions
2026 — Richeldis Fine Art, Barcelona, 2026 - ‘How soon is meaning’, SOM Gallery, 2025, Tokyo — Linus’ Blanket, Ken Nakahashi, Tokyo, 2024 — Vestige, NISO, London, 2024, Biscuit gallery, Tokyo, 2022 — Slipped Moonlight, GINZA TSUTAYA BOOKS, Tokyo, 2022 — To the Lighthouse, myheirloom, Tokyo.

Art Fairs
2025 — Art Osaka, biscuit gallery, 2024 — Art Fair Tokyo, biscuit gallery, 2023 — ART FAIR ASIA FUKUOKA, biscuit gallery, 2023 — Kiaf Seoul, biscuit gallery, 2023 — Art Fair Tokyo, biscuit gallery.

Public Collection
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan (2026)