KOSAKU KANECHIKA is pleased to present Junko Oki’s solo exhibition “STILL” at the Kyobashi gallery from March 7 to April 18, 2026.
Through unique embroidery and careful attention, Junko Oki inserts new life into used textiles and instruments. These objects, with years-worth of stories already engraved into them, are revived by Okiʼs hand through a series of attentive stitches. In Aichi Triennale 2025, Oki presented an installation work incorporating 100,000 needles gathered from throughout Japan, evoking the histories of hari-kuyo and sennin bari. In the current exhibition “Roppongi Crossing: What Passes is Time. We are Eternal” at the Mori Art Museum, Oki is showing a selection of recent works including pieces that rework items from her personal collection of fabrics and have significant sentimental value.
Presenting some of her largest work to date, working with large and unique materials has prompted the artist to recalibrate her process, sketching on an image of the material and making overlapping stitches to resemble brushstrokes. The dialogue with the material is unique to each piece of material involved, and Oki refers to this process as an intertwining of new and old times. They include everything that came into being, and chronologies that once existed but are now gone. At the core of Oki’s creative process is a discovery of new horizons through layered impressions of time.
The artist has provided the following statement for the show.
“STILL” can mean not only “yet” or “still” in the sense of continuation, but also “stillness”
Like ripples quietly spreading across the surface of water after a stone is cast
A stillness of resolve that remains unshaken amid increasingly chaotic days
“STILL”—this is how I choose to understand it now.
The exhibition coincides with the publication of the artist’s monograph “STILL PUNK” in late March. Published twelve years after “PUNK,” her first monograph, the artist reflects on the dual meaning of “still” as a continuation and a position, often despite the past, and as deep silence and calm. The past year, which for the artist has been marked by major exhibitions, and also by overcoming health issues and changing family relationships—alongside the preparation of this book chronicling works from the past ten years—has been an opportunity for her to reflect upon her work and to confirm her unwavering commitment to her practice. In this moment, Oki reaffirms her unchanging desire to be free of preexisting molds, and a quiet determination to keep stitching.
We invite you to attend Junko Okiʼs solo exhibition “STILL,” which features ten new works.
With each stitch made meticulously by hand, Junko Oki engraves stories of life onto textiles. Without the guide of an under drawing, the artist free-handedly creates unique motifs and patterns by stitching her fabric, rejecting the structured tradition of embroidery. Although her works display seemingly simple techniques, their instinctive approach awakens a visceral reaction in viewers. Radiating energy, Okiʼs sculptures and their room-filling presence extend the boundaries of both textiles and art.
