MAHO KUBOTA GALLERY is pleased to present “Shaping the Unseen,” a group exhibition featuring Atsushi Kaga, Miwa Ogasawara, Yui Samejima, and Teppei Takeda, on view from September 12, 2026.

“Shaping the Unseen” brings together a rare selection of sketches and studies by four artists—works that have seldom been shown publicly—alongside the paintings that emerged from them.

The exhibition focuses on the beginning and evolution of artistic creation: the moment when memories, references, and indistinct images accumulated within an artist’s mind first assume visible form through the movement of the hand. Sketches and studies are not merely preparatory steps toward a finished work; they are where ideas first acquire their contours and begin a dialogue with the artist. We invite you to follow how an initial spark of thought unfolds into a painting—and sometimes into something beyond.

Based between Dublin and Kyoto, Atsushi Kaga continues to develop narratives in which his alter ego, Usacchi, and its companion Kumacchi, appear as recurring figures. Infused with humour and allegorical qualities, these narratives draw upon diverse pictorial traditions while, in recent years, engaging closely with the narrative sensibilities cultivated in traditional Japanese painting. As a painting begins to take shape, Kaga assembles sketches, references, and fragments of images into collages, waiting for the moment when the narrative begins to unfold on its own. This exhibition presents a rare selection of sketches and collages created during that formative process.

Working in Hamburg, Miwa Ogasawara is known for her oil paintings of quiet interiors, landscapes, and shifting light. Yet, in her own words, what she paints is not landscape but Humanity—human existence itself. In recent years, she has begun incorporating metal leaf into her paintings, embarking on a new body of experimental work. The works presented here belong to the very beginning of that exploration, revealing how her long-standing investigation into light and existence is transformed through the encounter with a new material.

Yui Samejima explores how we perceive the world, and how its fragments may be translated into painting. Her work brings together a physical sense of the world and the accumulation of human thought, giving rise to layered images. By presenting three works from different stages of the same creative process together, the exhibition makes visible how a single painting gradually takes shape.

Teppei Takeda is an artist who creates “paintings of paintings.” He begins by making small-scale esquisses based on the image that first appears in his mind, selecting the one that holds the greatest potential to become a painting. He then spends an extended period returning to that initial “picture,” painting it once again until it ultimately comes to fruition as a finished work. This exhibition presents a rare group of these original “pictures,” which have seldom been shown publicly, offering a unique opportunity to encounter the very core of Takeda’s artistic practice.

Each of the four artists arrives at painting through a different creative process. Yet, by turning our attention to the unseen forms that lie behind their finished works, “Shaping the Unseen” invites us to glimpse the paths of thought through which each painting comes into being.