Current Exhibition
Ryogoku
Waka Yoshida
Fresh Fossils
September 12 (Sat) - October 17 (Sat), 2026
Open: Tuesday - Satday 11 am - 7 pm
Closed on Sunday, Monday and Nationalholidays
GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku is pleased to present Fresh Fossils, a solo exhibition by Waka Yoshida, running from Saturday, September 12 through Saturday, October 17, 2026.
Yoshida has long drawn inspiration from natural-historical motifs — landforms, dinosaurs, three-dimensional models, minerals — to create works that move freely between two and three dimensions. In recent years she has turned her attention to unseen and unknown phenomena as well, depicting space, time, and living things within parallel worlds and multiverses resembling our own, rendered through familiar motifs in richly layered forms of expression.
This exhibition brings together works built around Yoshida's recurring subjects of dinosaurs and everyday motifs, exploring the theme of preserving time and memory as physical matter — and the artist's love for that very act of preservation.
The dinosaurs that appear so frequently in her work take shape from a blend of the artist's own memories: Shōwa-era figurines, illustrated encyclopedias, and experiences in museums.
Yoshida's paintings are constructed through the coexistence of timelines that would never naturally intersect — dinosaurs that first appeared 230 million years ago, encyclopedias published in the 1970s, and the present day inhabited by an artist born in 1983. The title Fresh Fossils captures the artist's earnest wish to render a fragment of eternity with tenderness and care. The thick-edged, frame-like boxes depicted within her compositions function as devices for preserving multiple timelines at once, while also serving as stages upon which her motifs strike their poses.
We invite you to experience these spatial expressions in person — evoking the niches found in the corners of ancient ruins, at once artificial and enveloped in the singular presence of the passage of long stretches of time.
Artist's Comment for the Exhibition
There is a phrase, "Living Fossil."
It sounds like a contradiction in terms, yet it describes creatures — like the nautilus or the horseshoe crab — that remain alive today while retaining the form of their ancestors.
Things that no longer exist here appear before me through my memory.
Fresh Fossils.
A fragment of eternity, set down with love.
2026, Waka Yoshida
1983 Born in Iwate
2006 B.F.A ., Fine Arts, Department of Education, Saitama University
2008 Graduated from Setsu-mode seminar
[Solo exhibitions]
2024 GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku, Tokyo
2023 Cyg art gallery, Iwate
2021 GALLERY MoMo Projects, Tokyo
2019 GALLERY MoMo Projects, Tokyo
Cyg art gallery, Iwate
2018 GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku, Tokyo
SATO, Iwate
2016 GALLERY MoMo Projects, Tokyo
2014 GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku, Tokyo
2012 GALLERY MoMo Roppongi, Tokyo
2010 GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku, Tokyo
2008 Setsu-mode Gallery 1F, Tokyo
GALLERY MoMo ,Tokyo
[Group exhibitions]
2026 "Ordinary Days" Spiral Garden ONE FUKUOKA BLDG, Fukuoka
2025 "Men-Ten" Cyg art gallery, Iwate
"BASIC²" THE blank GALLERY, Tokyo
2024 "Double Resonance" GALLERY MoMo Projects, Tokyo
2023 "Gallery Show" GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku, Tokyo
2021 "TEMPLE" Seventh Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2020 "Reflection" GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku, Tokyo
2018 "Two-persons Show: Unknown Island" GALLERY MoMo Projects, Tokyo
2014 "Nise The Choice" Biriken Gallery, Tokyo
2014 "The 17th Exhibition of the Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art" TARO OKAMOTO MUSEUM of ART,KAWASAKI, Kanagawa
"DARUMA COCHAE" SFT GALLERY at THE NATIONAL ART CENTER, Tokyo
"interaction vol.2" GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku, Tokyo
2013 "Tainai Meguri and Gazoku" Kyoto Traditional Crafting Museum, Kyoto
2012 "Gazoku No.2 Original painting -research project of Gazoku- " unseal comtenporary, Tokyo
2011 "Regenerate" GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku, Tokyo
"Gekitotsu-ten" unseal comtenporary, Tokyo
2010 "Bat show" Book Gallery Popotamu, Tokyo
"Popotamu wintumn" Book Gallery Popotamu, Tokyo
2009 "Summer Group Show Hop Step Jump" GALLERY MoMo Roppongi, Tokyo
2008 "new-laid eggs" GALLERY MoMo, Tokyo
"Illustration the choice grand prix exhibition" Itoya Gallery 9F, Tokyo
"roji ART exhibition" rojicafe, Tokyo
"Tokyo Wonder Wall 2008" Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
"new painter" MOTT GALLERY, Tokyo
"GEISAI 11" Tokyo Big Site, Tokyo
"Opning Exhibition" GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku, Tokyo
"Setsu mode seminar graduation exhibition" Gekkousou, Tokyo
2007 "GEISAI 10" Tokyo Big Site, Tokyo, Japan
"toshi " Gallery Choukou, Tokyo
"Harudakara" Niji Gallery, Tokyo
"Eijin Gorin" Ginza Koshin Gallery, Tokyo
"Shironokoto" Book Gallery Popotamu, Tokyo
2006 "design festa!! vol.20" Tokyo Big Site, Tokyo
"Gekkousou moonlight show" Gekkousou, Tokyo
"GEISAI 9" Tokyo Big Site, Tokyo, Japan
"Saitama University graduation production show" The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Saitama
2005 "June show" Saitama University Como Gallery, Saitama
"Gekkousou moonlight show" Gekkousou, Tokyo
"toshi " Gallery Choukou, Tokyo
"Saitama University volunteer exhibition, Sai-ten" The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Saitama
2004 "design festa!! vol.18" Tokyo Big Site, Tokyo
"Wasuremono " Saitama University Como Gallery, Saitama
"toshi " Gallery Choukou, Tokyo
"Saitama University volunteer exhibition, Sai-ten" The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Saitama
[Awards]
2014 Selected for the 17th Exhibition of the Taro Okamoto for Contemporary Art