UP Gallery is delighted to make its debut at Tokyo Gendai 2025, presenting the exhibition Homage at Booth H30. We are thrilled to showcase alongside many distinguished international galleries and warmly invite you to join us at PACIFICO Yokohama, September 11–14, 2025.

The presentation features works by Mia Liu, Anastasia Samoylova, and Arthur Ou—marking the first time these artists exhibit in Japan. Continuing the gallery’s focus on the practices of image-making, the exhibition explores how artists pay tribute to the cultural, literary, and artistic traditions that shape their visual languages, while expanding the expressive boundaries of photography.

• Mia Liu draws inspiration from Yōko Ogawa’s novel Specimens of the Ring Finger, intertwining Zhuangzi’s fable The Butterfly Dream with Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go to create photographic sculptures. Presented in specimen-box form, her works transform hearts and butterflies into symbolic imagery, combining poetic materiality with philosophical metaphor. Encased in handcrafted cypress boxes, the works reflect her profound engagement with material and context.

• Anastasia Samoylova, in her Breakfasts series, transforms the everyday ritual of the morning meal into a visual homage, with particular tributes to Japanese photography masters Daido Moriyama, Masahisa Fukase, and Shomei Tomatsu.

• Arthur Ou presents his Earthworks series, where clay forms echo the aesthetics of Chinese scholar’s rocks, evoking meditations on nature and elegance. His View series employs window-frame photography to resonate with the framing techniques of traditional Chinese gardens, creating visual spaces where the boundaries between the natural and the man-made blur—reinterpreting Chinese art history through a contemporary lens.

Together, the three artists initiate a cross-cultural dialogue through images, objects, and traditions, embodying UP Gallery’s rigorous and forward-looking curatorial mission.

We sincerely invite you to join us at Tokyo Gendai 2025. For those unable to attend in person, we encourage you to follow our social media platforms for updates and highlights from the fair.