SOM GALLERY is pleased to announce the inaugural exhibition of its new gallery space in Jingumae, Shibuya, with the opening of Vita Nova. The exhibition brings together works by nine artists: Matthew Monahan, Hugh Scott-Douglas, Ryota Watanabe, Asami Shiode, Yurika Shiroyama, Koga Miura, Aldo van den Broek, Johnny Mae Hauser, and Aiku Kurotaki. We are humbled and excited to open this next chapter of SOM and cordially invite the public to join us for the opening reception.

Our program has grown through encounters with individual works that led to conversations with multiple artists. Oftentimes, an interest in one work can lead to the interest of the cultures and ideas behind their presence - the way they position themselves in relation to earlier generations seemingly has led toward the very way the gallery’s exhibitions have furnished its own history. Vita Nova brings together these nine artists with whom we have developed relationships through this very process.

Ryota Watanabe reconstructs algorithmically-generated images through the accumulation and cutting of paint, while Koga Miura combines random-number systems with repetitive manual processes, bringing rules and chance into the same pictorial space. Asami Shiode explores the relationship between a particular image and the physical presence of paint through still life, and Yurika Shiroyama draws on bodily perception, natural phenomena, and everyday experience.

Matthew Monahan reconstructs the body through fragments and disparate materials, drawing on historical forms including ancient sculpture. Aiku Kurotaki takes the structure of weaving as a point of departure to consider human existence and social systems. Aldo van den Broek works with discarded materials and traces of the city, revealing the time and memory held within them. Johnny Mae Hauser photographs familiar objects and everyday scenes, exploring personal memory and the image, while Hugh Scott-Douglas moves between historical photographic processes and generative AI to examine how images are produced and circulated.

These nine practices vary in each artist’s own methodologies and historical references. Algorithmic images, ancient sculpture, weaving, urban materials, and photographic technologies each connect the present to different cultural and technological histories. Rather than bringing them together under a single theme, Vita Nova presents these differences as part of the range of practices that form the raison d'être of SOM itself.

For us, working with artists today and engaging with art history are not separate pursuits. One work can lead toward another artist or an earlier generation, just as the past can change how we see what is being made now. Through this exchange, we continue to deepen our relationships with these artists while extending the program toward a future of new generations and geographies.

This exhibition marks the beginning of SOM GALLERY’s step. Building on the relationships developed with these artists, the exhibition opens a new phase of the gallery’s program in Jingumae.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, October 16th 6pm to 8pm at SOM GALLERY.