Curated by Daichi Nakagawa, Takakurakazuki, and Yasutaka Toyokawa
Featuring works by contact Gonzo, Daisuke Nishijima, Hayaki Nishigaki, Kenji Yanobe+BAN8KU+YANOKEN PROJECT, Romana Machin Tanimura, Sawako Kageyama, Shun Okada, Takakurakazuki, Takumi Hirayama, Tomoya Kuki, Yoshihiro Takeuchi, and Yume Aoyama
29 August – 19 October 2025
Opening  Programmes on Friday, 29 August 2025
Games Day Programmes on Saturday, 30 August 2025

Mizuma Gallery is pleased to present ART BIT MATRIX -TOKUSATSU to VIDEOGAME-, an exhibition featuring 12 Japanese artists that explores the dynamic intersections of contemporary art, indie games, and tokusatsu (Japanese cinematic special-effects culture). Curated by Daichi Nakagawa, Takakurakazuki and Yasutaka Toyokawa, the exhibition features artworks by contact Gonzo, Daisuke Nishijima, Hayaki Nishigaki, Kenji Yanobe+BAN8KU+YANOKEN PROJECT, Romana Machin Tanimura, Sawako Kageyama, Shun Okada, Takakurakazuki, Takumi Hirayama, Tomoya Kuki, Yoshihiro Takeuchi, and Yume Aoyama.

About the exhibition

ART BIT MATRIX -TOKUSATSU to VIDEOGAME- is a hybrid of Hotel Anteroom Kyoto’s annual summer contemporary art and indie game exhibition art bit – Contemporary Art & Indie Game Culture and the group exhibition Character Matrix curated by contemporary artist Takakurakazuki. art bit focuses on the mirror-like interplay between game-like qualities in contemporary art and the artistic potential in indie games and explores the roots of their mutual appeal and creativity to pursue new possibilities for both art and games. Meanwhile, Character Matrix delves into the world of character design as vessels for expression, exploring the realm of Japanese tokusatsu (Japanese cinematic special-effects culture) and games that have been overlooked by the Japanese contemporary art scene.

12 artists from both exhibitions have come together for ART BIT MATRIX -TOKUSATSU to VIDEOGAME- to capture the fusion between western modern art history; where the principles and contexts of ‘beauty’ has been revaluated, and the accumulation of sacred, secular, playful Asian traditions, and pop culture on Japanese art. From vibrant and playful paintings, and animation to playable analogue and digital games, the exhibition would create a diverse art mandala/matrix where different mediums coexist. Tokusatsu reimagines reality as a fantastical world, while games ‘install’ the fantastical virtual world into reality. ART BIT MATRIX -TOKUSATSU to VIDEOGAME- explores a new art movement at the intersection of tokusatsu and video games, which traverse between reality and the virtual. It revisits the Superflat movement, pioneered by Takashi Murakami, by expanding its cultural roots beyond otaku (Japanese pop culture fandom) and internet culture into global art history.

ART BIT MATRIX -TOKUSATSU to VIDEOGAME- also explores artistic possibilities from tokusatsu, a genre shaped by the threat of nuclear war, to video games that have become a common language of modern entertainment. What insights can be gleaned from 80 years of Japanese cultural history in the aftermath of World War II? And what would we create as war spread in the current times?

Featured Works

Central to the show is artist Kenji Yanobe, known for integrating post-war tokusatsu aesthetics and nuclear themes. Yanobe reinterprets Taro Okamoto’s Tower of the Sun as the creation myth of his SHIP’S CAT series. In his creation myth, the tower, built at the 1970 Osaka World Expo, were vestiges of humanity now functions as the SHIP’S CAT’s space shuttle that carries the beginnings of life on earth. In 2025, Yanobe collaborated with pixel artist BAN8KU and game designers from Kyoto University of the Arts, Osaka Electro-Communication University and Soai University via the YANOKEN PROJECT to debut a sculptural artwork that bridges physical form and virtual experience through interactive gameplay. A behind-the-scenes video on the development of the artwork and its game world will be shown at the exhibition.

ART BIT MATRIX -TOKUSATSU to VIDEOGAME- will also feature works that explore the diversity of ‘Play’ and ‘Pray’ across different mediums. Yoshihiro Takeuchi and Shun Okada reinterpret the interactive mechanics and glitches inherent in video games as new principles of painting, confronting Western art history with abstract chaos from which original characters emerge. Through traditional Japanese techniques, Hayaki Nishigaki transforms the remnants of Godzilla, the original tokusatsu monster, into spectacles that critique our modern urban landscapes, accentuating the artistic potential shared between tokusatsu and art. In contrast, Yume Aoyama and Romana Machin Tanimura shape mythical beasts and monsters through clever use of two-dimensional and three-dimensional formats,, whereas Takumi Hirayama and Tomoya Kuki summon clay and ceramic figurines as spirits of the real environment, and Sawako Kageyama animates a fictional TV show featuring half-human characters in pop and dark aesthetics. These artists of the “Pokémon” generation discover and create monsters in toys and stationery that colour everyday spaces, imbue media with divine spirits, and manifest a polytheistic mandala-like character matrix.

Additionally, contact Gonzo presents a 6-meter-long coin game as a bodiless performance artwork, while Daisuke Nishijima deconstructs a classic Super Famicom game into a “non-shooting shooter” inspired by ‘Space Invaders’. Lastly, Takakurakazuki’s work reinterprets games as vessels for meditative rituals by housing them in Buddhist altars. These works all function as fantastical devices that traverse between reality and the virtual, transforming the closed play of games into an open prayer for the world.

Exhibition Programmes
To celebrate this exhibition, 13 of the participating artists and curators will be present in Singapore during the opening week between 28 – 30 August 2025, coinciding with Singapore Gallery Month (SGM) hosted by Art Gallery Association Singapore (AGAS). Mizuma Gallery is proud to present a series of engaging programmes for all ages that will offer a deeper insight into the exhibition, including a Curators & Artists Talk at the Japan Creative Centre, an Artist & Curator Tour at the gallery, a kids game design workshop led by participating manga artist and game developer Daisuke Nishijima, and a Games Day Free Play session where visitors can play and interact with the games exhibited in gallery.

For more information, visit: https://tinyurl.com/artbitmatrixsg