Motif by Keiko Moriuchi
目を培う目薬はない。金を見ることで、健全な宇宙が見えてくる。
There is no remedy to awaken the eyes. To gaze upon
the universe, you need to fix your eyes on gold.
Motif by Keiko Moriuchi presents the universe as a motif: a site of infinite expansion and a living meditation on cosmic order, sacred geometry, and the threads binding all existence.
Keiko Moriuchi (Japanese, b. 1943) was the last artist invited to join Japan’s legendary Gutai Art Association and remains the only member personally recruited by its founder, Jirō Yoshihara (1905–1972). Gutai championed radical experimentation and direct engagement with materials, breaking from artistic tradition in a postwar Japan.
Today at 83, Sensei Moriuchi continues the practice she has pursued for six decades: rendering cosmic structures visible through paint and gold. Gold leaf is central to her work. Applied in rich, tactile layers, it interacts dynamically with light, shifting and shimmering throughout the day and into the night. Her canvases unite cosmic patterns, mythological symbols, and mathematical principles, visual languages bridging Eastern philosophy with contemporary explorations of the fundamental order of existence.
Hours
17 Jan – 1 Feb 2026
11 AM – 7 PM Daily
Opening Reception: Artist blesses the space [RSVP]
17 January 2026
11 AM - 12 PM
Address
Tokonoma
16 Shaw Road, #03-10
Singapore 367954
17 artworks for sale.
Pricelist available soon.
A little history
Born in Osaka in 1943, Sensei Moriuchi was active in Tokyo's Neo Dada group before encountering Gutai founder Jirō Yoshihara in 1962 while studying at Osaka Shoin Women's University.Yoshihara encouraged her to pursue her practice in New York rather than Paris, following which she left university in 1964 and moved to New York the following year, a decision that would prove transformative. Living and working in the same building as Ad Reinhardt, she developed close relationships with Isamu Noguchi, Man Ray, and Matsumi Kanemitsu.
In 1968, she joined Gutai at Yoshihara's personal invitation and remained an active member until the group's dissolution in 1972, following Yoshihara's death. Her work has since been featured in major public commissions in Japan, including installations at Kawanishi Town Hall in Nara Prefecture and Kakegawa Station in Shizuoka Prefecture. She made her U.S. museum debut in December 2024.
Practice and Philosophy
For six decades, Sensei has pursued a singular investigation: rendering the universe's fundamental structures visible through paint and gold. Her practice unites Gutai's postwar experimental energy with profound spiritual inquiry, translating cosmic principles of connection, transformation, and infinite renewal into layered canvases that shimmer with accumulated meaning.
"The word 'motif' is incredibly profound," Sensei explains in an interview with us, "humans can't conjure that imagination without contemplating the universe. That imagination randomly surfaces in artists, scientists, religious scholars—ideas like 'the universe must be like this.' That's the etymology of the word 'motif.'" At 83, she rejects conventional markers of time: "I don't want to say, 'I'm eighty-three because that's the number from my birth date.' For me, right now—this moment—is being born. Every day is a birth. Gradually, you realise the universe is expansion. It never shrinks."
Gold leaf serves as what Moriuchi calls "the universe's prescription." "When you gaze upon the universe, you need gold-rimmed glasses, or rather, gold eye drops," she states. "Without them, you can't see the universe. Seeing gold is about achieving immediate enlightenment."
This conviction drives her material practice: gold as both medium and method, a substance that allows viewers to perceive what would otherwise remain invisible.
The Exhibition
Motif brings together several bodies of work that embody this cosmic inquiry. A significant portion of the exhibition features works from Lu: The Never-Ending Thread series, where horizontal lines extend across canvases like threads stretching infinitely into the cosmos, reaching toward prime-number coordinates—representing the pure building blocks of the universe. The title's character 善 (zen) suggests both "Eternity" and "Zen" (禅), imbuing the work with spiritual dimension while remaining open to interpretation.
Other works draw from ancient mythology and Eastern philosophy. Donut Peach fuses the Eastern symbol of immortality (the peach as protector against death and bringer of vitality) with the Poincaré Conjecture in mathematics; the donut-shaped flat peach (蟠桃) becomes a visual metaphor for cosmic structure, a form that loops back into itself, suggesting a universe both infinite and whole.
Dragons in Eternal Circle (龍蟠龍) depicts three dragons biting each other's tails, an ancient Chinese symbol of heaven, earth, and humanity bound in eternal motion. The King's Gold reactivates a rediscovered Egyptian hieroglyph for "king," transforming ancient authority into living symbol. The Dragon's Spring invokes a Chinese legend of a limestone cave housing a dragon's nest, depicting mythic energy waiting beneath the surface of the world.
TOKONOMA's space has been designed to honour the luminous core of Sensei's practice. Against stark white walls, gold leaf catches light and breeze, shifting, shimmering and settling throughout the day. The contained showing of just fourteen works gives them room to breathe, presented for individual contemplation rather than collective sweep. A plinth resembling a Japanese shrine centers the presentation, echoing the artist's Buddhist beliefs and the meditative encounter her work demands.
Motif marks Art Again's inaugural exhibition with a living artist, bringing Sensei Moriuchi's first Singapore presentation to audiences during Singapore Art Week 2026 at TOKONOMA, a cultural project space in Tai Seng inspired by the contemplative alcoves of traditional Japanese homes.
拡張、拡大 そ ればかりですね、宇宙というのは。
Expansion, enlargement—that's all there is to it, the universe.
Visit Motif between 17 January 2026 - 1 February 2026. Opening hours 11AM - 7PM.
Tell us you're coming.
Witness gold leaf that prescribes vision, forming threads that stretch toward infinity, and a legendary artist who refuses to stop being born.
1943 Born in Osaka, Japan
1962 Studied Japanese Literature at Osaka Shoin Women’s University, Osaka, Japan
1963 Studied under Jiro Yoshihara, the founder of the Gutai Art Association
1965 Moved to New York City in March with artists such as Jiro Yoshiwara, Michio
Yoshiwara, and Ghiju Saito visiting the studio. The studio was located in the same building as Ad Reinhardt. Became acquainted with artists based in New York such as Isamu Noguchi, Matsumi Kanemitsu, Yukihisa Isobe
1968 Joined the Gutai Art Association as the final member to do so
1972 Dissolution of the Gutai Art Association after death of Jiro Yoshihara
Lives and works in Kyoto, Japan1965 Omiyage Exhibition, NAIQUA GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan
1981 Omiyage Installation, Keiko Moriuchi, Muramatsu Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1982 Omiyage Installation, Keiko Moriuchi, Nakamura Gallery, Osaka, Japan
1993 Mitsukoshi Gallery, Osaka, Japan
1997-2003 Gallery Nuranuki, Osaka, Japan
2004-2006 Gallery Inoue, Osaka, Japan
2008 Noda Contemporary, Nagoya, Japan
2009 Noda Contemporary, Nagoya, Japan
2020 Lads Gallery, Osaka, Japan
2021 Keiko Moriuchi Exhibition, Lads Gallery, Osaka, Japan
Art Space Kan, Kyoto, Japan
2022 T Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Lads Gallery, Osaka, Japan
2023 T Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Lads Gallery, Osaka, Japan
2024 T Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Lads Gallery, Osaka, Japan
NADA, Laura the Gallery, Miami, USA
2025 Marco Gallery, Osaka, Japan
1969 Kyoto Independands Exhibition, Kyoto, Japan
1966 The 17th Gutai Art Exhibition (Takashimaya Yokohama, Sukiyabashi Central Museum, Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka, Japan)
Exhibited in Tokyo and Osaka until the 20th Gutai Art Exhibition in 1968.
1969 Gutai Small Works Exhibition, Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka, Japan
1970 Gutai Festival, Expo Festival Plaza, Osaka, Japan
Gutai Pinacotheca Final Exhibition, Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka, Japan
1976 18 Years of Gutai Art, Osaka Prefectural Gallery, Osaka, Japan
1979 Special Exhibition, Jiro Yoshihara and Today's Aspects of the "Gutai", Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Hyogo, Japan
2004 Gutai 50th Anniversary Retrospective Exhibition, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Hyogo, Japan
2008 ART TAIPEI, Noda Contemporary, Taipei, Taiwan
Beijing Olympics East Asia Visual Arts Exhibition, Beijing, China
2012 Mercy in the Art: Portrait of Avalokitesvara | Hong Yun & Keiko Moriuchi, Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo
2015 ART FAIR TOKYO, Hatonomori Art, Tokyo, Japan
2016 A Taste of Gutai: Lito and Kim Camacho Collection, Ayala Museum, Makati, Philippines
ART FAIR TOKYO, Hatonomori Art, Tokyo, Japan
2017-2019 ART FAIR TOKYO, Hatonomori Art, Tokyo, Japan
2022 Into the Unknown World - GUTAI: Differentiation and Integration, Osaka National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
2023 ART FAIR TOKYO, T Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Art Basel Hong Kong, Take Ninagawa Gallery, Hong Kong
2024 ART FAIR TOKYO, T Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2025 ART FAIR TOKYO, T Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Design Space by Basic Space, LA and North Hampton, USA
Laura the Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA
Kyoto Governor's Prize
Osaka Governor's Prize
Ashiya City Art Association Prize
Ashiya Mayor's Prize
Asahi Newspaper Prize
Mainichi Sign Design Award Honorable Mention
Shizuoka Prefectural Police Prize
Japan Urban Prefectural Landscape Excellence Prize
Powers Art Center Collection (USA)
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art (Japan)
Takakamo Shrine (Japan)
Kumano Hongu Taisha (Japan)
Lito and Kim Camacho Collection (Philippines)
Ayala Museum (Philippines)
1987 Taima Mandala, Drape (Front Curtain), Kawanishi Multipurpose Hall, Nara, Japan
Taima Mandala, Ceramic Mural, Taima Town Culture Center, Nara, Japan
1988 Kakegawa's Passage of Time, Ceramic Mural Production, JR Kakegawa Station, Kakegawa, Japan
Kakegawa Mandala: Ceramic Panel, JR Kakegawa Station, Kakegawa, Japan
1989 Cosmic Mandala, Ceramic Mural, Tojo Town Cosmic Hall, Hyogo, Japan
1990 A Comet Named Tempel-Tuttle, Ceramic Mural Painting, Kagoshima City Science Museum, Kagoshima, Japan
Pharaoh's Name in Hieroglyphs, ceramic mural painting, Kagoshima City Library, Kagoshima, Japan
See our listing on the official Singapore Art Week page here: https://www.artweek.sg/event-detail/Keiko-Moriuchi-Motif