KAREN SHIOZAWA

— Karen Shiozawa

Whitestone Gallery Hong Kong presents Twilight Planet, the first solo exhibition in Hong Kong by Japanese artist Karen Shiozawa, on view from 24 October to 28 November 2026. This exhibition revisits Shiozawa’s ongoing exploration of light, examining the space where physical light intersects with the light that resides within memory and emotion.

Born in 1998, Karen Shiozawa is a Japanese artist whose practice is deeply informed by her childhood in the Netherlands. Her work is characterized by a distinctive sense of space and a heightened contrast between light and shadow. Rather than engaging solely with the visual, she approaches the world through multiple sensory dimensions, including light and sound, seeking forms of expression that resonate deeply with the inner experience of the viewer. European architectural motifs such as windmills, classical arches, and church spires frequently appear throughout her paintings. Drawing on the principles of chiaroscuro, she heightens the contrast between light and shadow while layering vivid colors to create spaces that depart from physical landscapes.

Shiozawa’s process begins by building up the surface through multiple layers of paint. After covering the entire surface with oil paint, she gradually scrapes away the upper layers to reveal the colors beneath, allowing vivid hues to emerge as if a light were being kindled in the darkness. She also scratches into the surface with a needle and employs delicate tapping techniques to create variations in texture and subtle fluctuations of light. Through this layered process, she seeks not to reproduce landscapes as they appear in reality, but to retain spaces transformed through memory and the atmosphere that lingers within them.

The light of the stars illuminating the sky.

A faint light lingering deep within our memories.

And the light that illuminates our own contours from within.

In this exhibition, Shiozawa turns her attention to the places where these different forms of light intersect. While the light of the outside world illuminates the waters before us, the light of memory illuminates the past, and an inner light illuminates our own existence and emotions.

“With Twilight Planet, I wanted to explore more than just a scene at dusk. The title also speaks to the boundaries between different moments in time, the shifting nature of light, and the space between the past and the future. To me, these are not simply about change, but about the beauty that can be found in the process of moving from one state to another. Just as the sky at twilight gradually shifts from day into night, I find myself drawn to those fleeting moments of brightness that emerge between different times and different kinds of light. We each see the world differently, and we each carry our own memories. In a world where so many different perceptions coexist, perhaps each of us carries a light of our own—even if it is something that cannot be seen or understood by others. When our consciousness becomes overwhelmed by things that are difficult to define, when we lose our sense of direction and feel as though our own existence is suspended, perhaps that is when we can begin to truly engage in a dialogue with ourselves, and with the world around us.”

— Karen Shiozawa

Twilight Planet embodies a world in which stars continually shift and transform through time and light, drifting quietly between the past and the future. The exhibition explores what emerges within this space of transition. At the point where visible and invisible forms of light meet, memories and emotions that have yet to be put into words emerge, along with the worlds that exist within each of us.

Through the exhibition, Shiozawa invites visitors to experience moments in which the boundary between the self and the world becomes blurred amid the fluctuations of light—perhaps, even briefly, allowing them to become part of that light themselves.

About the Artist

Born in 1998, Karen Shiozawa spent part of her childhood in the Netherlands and received an MFA from Tokyo Zokei University. In 2018, she received the Best Formative Art Prize at the Asia Creative Art Exhibition held at The National Art Center, Tokyo. In 2022, she received the Award of Excellence at the 48th Art Festival Tokyo-ten Exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. In 2020, her work entered the collection of Deji Art Museum in China. Her work has been presented in Japan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, the United States, Greece, and other countries.