Fou Gallery is pleased to present Resonance on a Surface, the second solo exhibition by Japanese artist Naomi Okubo. Featuring vibrant acrylic paintings and hand-crafted garments, the exhibition continues Okubo’s exploration of home, intimacy, solitude, and escapism through intricately composed visuals.

Okubo’s practice explores alternative ways of living that slow down the pace of global culture. Okubo’s process begins with digital collages that incorporate photography, drawing, and found imagery. Drawing from architecture, interior design, fashion, and art history to textiles, scientific diagrams, and decorative patterns, she constructs richly layered compositions that blend elements of Japanese culture with Western motifs. By masterfully partially priming the canvas surface, she subtly shapes the viewer’s perceptual experience of depth and materiality.

A recurring motif throughout the exhibition are fire flames—drawn from traditional Japanese painting—which introduces a sense of warmth, light, transformation, and liberation. In her reinterpretation of Dancing in the Flames by Nihonga master Hayami Gyoshu, Okubo employs bokashi, the delicate gradation technique used in Japanese woodblock printing, and overlays floral motifs to create a vivid homage to historical Nihonga traditions.

Across her works, Okubo portrays herself as a feminine archetype, intentionally omitting facial features to allow viewers to project their own interpretations. In Bird Collector, she composes bird imagery sourced from architecture, science, and taxidermy atop a reimagined version of William Morris’ “Trellis” wallpaper, generating a striking tension between  tradition and personal symbolism. In Canary Cave, the painted figure wears a patchwork dress made from American quilting fabrics—a medium historically used by American women for storytelling and activism. Okubo will wear this same dress during the exhibition’s opening, further blurring the line between the artist, the artwork, and the act of presentation.

The exhibition also debuts her hand-crafted garments, created through a labor-intensive process of sourcing patterned fabrics and sewing unique pieces. This meditative practice allows Okubo to reflect on how she inhabits her painted worlds, merging art-making with self-presentation and agency.