Press Release

ShugoArts will host the exhibition Shugo Arts Show: Naofumi Maruyama, Beginning, featuring the early works of Naofumi Maruyama.

Born in 1964, Maruyama began his career as a painter in 1988. Since then he has developed a distinctive stain technique in which paint is allowed to bleed into cotton fabric. He has created a body of work while fluidly moving the boundary between abstraction and representation, sometimes with meticulous care and sometimes with free‑wheeling spontaneity.

This exhibition focuses on the first four years of his artistic journey, when a young man, who had originally set his sights on the fashion industry, made a decisive turn toward painting. It will showcase paintings, drawings, and photographs including his earliest pieces in 1988 and those exhibited in his solo show at INAX Gallery 2 (Kyobashi, Tokyo) in 1991. The show offers a valuable opportunity to trace how Maruyama’s initial experiments with the stain technique laid the groundwork for his lifelong practice.

By following his exploratory path, visitors can gain fresh insight into the origins of a career that now spans 38  years and enrich their understanding of his current body of work.

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Installation Views

Exhibition view: Naofumi MARUYAMA, Shugoarts Show: Naofumi Maruyama, Beginning, ShugoArts, Tokyo (14 February–4 April 2026). Courtesy ShugoArts.
Exhibition view: Naofumi MARUYAMA, Shugoarts Show: Naofumi Maruyama, Beginning, ShugoArts, Tokyo (14 February–4 April 2026). Courtesy ShugoArts.
Exhibition view: Naofumi MARUYAMA, Shugoarts Show: Naofumi Maruyama, Beginning, ShugoArts, Tokyo (14 February–4 April 2026). Courtesy ShugoArts.
Exhibition view: Naofumi MARUYAMA, Shugoarts Show: Naofumi Maruyama, Beginning, ShugoArts, Tokyo (14 February–4 April 2026). Courtesy ShugoArts.
Exhibition view: Naofumi MARUYAMA, Shugoarts Show: Naofumi Maruyama, Beginning, ShugoArts, Tokyo (14 February–4 April 2026). Courtesy ShugoArts.
Exhibition view: Naofumi MARUYAMA, Shugoarts Show: Naofumi Maruyama, Beginning, ShugoArts, Tokyo (14 February–4 April 2026). Courtesy ShugoArts.
Exhibition view: Naofumi MARUYAMA, Shugoarts Show: Naofumi Maruyama, Beginning, ShugoArts, Tokyo (14 February–4 April 2026). Courtesy ShugoArts.

Selected Works

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About the Artist

Born in Niigata, Japan, in 1957. Lives and works in Tokyo. Started teaching at Musashino Art University since 2000, as a professor of department of painting.

View Artist Profile Naofumi Maruyama contemporary artist
About the Gallery

ShugoArts, established by Shugo Satani in 2000, values its locality, selects its artists regardless of their time and place, and sends out its activities from Tokyo.

Today, it has gotten much easier to appreciate various artworks of all times and places and their meanings, as well as spaces exhibiting artworks, need to be redefined, including contemporary art galleries. ShugoArts prioritises how to realise artists’ own growth as artists or make the most of their accomplishments. In order to nurture their abilities and possibilities, we provide our space for artists to express themselves freely and follow their artistic journeys side by side. Under any circumstances, our mission is to work and grow together with artists who ceaselessly create artworks, which shine a light on life and give it validation.

ShugoArts holds about 7 exhibitions a year and participates in national and international art fairs while simultaneously managing commissions for public spaces and organising performance and talk events. In addition, we also would like to be a part of art histories at large by creating invaluable archives and assisting art institutions.

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Address
Complex 665 2F, 6-5-24
Roppongi Minato-ku
Tokyo
Japan
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Saturday
12pm – 6pm
(1)
Tokyo Complex 665 2F, 6-5-24, Roppongi Minato-ku
ShugoArts
Complex 665 2F, 6-5-24, Roppongi Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan
+81 364 472 234
http://www.shugoarts.com

Opening hours
Tuesday – Saturday
12pm – 6pm
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