Lia Kimura
Remnants
i GALLERY OSAKA is pleased to present Remnants, a solo exhibition by Warsaw-based artist Lia Kimura.
This exhibition is presented with the support of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, a Polish cultural institution.
What is captivating about Lia Kimura’s paintings is the pronounced focus on the process by which the image becomes unstable, rather than the act of depicting the figure itself. Even though there definitely is “someone” on the canvas, that presence gradually becomes unrecognizable as its contours, expressions, and physicality slowly waver. Projected there is not merely abstraction or visual effect but rather the uncertainty of human existence itself in today’s world.
Having grown up while caught between multiple cultural backgrounds in Japan and Poland, Lia Kimura has used the exceedingly physical medium of painting to present sensations that cannot be reduced to a single place, attribute, or definition.
In her works, the image does not advance toward perfection but rather breaks, rubs, and continuously changes without ever fully stopping.
Yet this instability does not function as a deficiency but rather as a “blank space” that draws in the onlooker’s memories and senses.
The title Remnants makes reference to the fragments that are left behind once something is lost.
This exhibition focuses on the presence of an inexplicable being that comes about as the image heads toward disappearance.
DATES
JULY 4 - AUGUST 3, 2026
*WED-MON
OPENING RECEPTION
JULY 4 (SAT), 5-8PM
LOCATION
i GALLERY OSAKA
1F, 3-8-14, MINAMISENBA,
CHUO-KU, OSAKA-SHI,
OSAKA
ARTIST
Lia Kimura
" Inspired by the tradition of historical portraiture, my work moves away from rigid representation and towards the process of disappearance.Through layers of blurring, touch, and erasure, the image gradually loses its fixed identity, transforming into an ephemeral emotional trace.
I explore memory not as a static form of documentation, but as something inherently unstable, intimate, and constantly shifting.
In "Remnants", disappearance is not treated as mere absence, but as a profound act of transformation – a bridge between what remains and what is felt."
-Lia Kimura
Lia Kimura
Lia Kimura is a Japanese-Polish contemporary painter based in Warsaw. Through layers of blurring, touch, and erasure, her paintings explore memory, identity, and emotional presence as constantly shifting states.
Inspired by tradition of historical portraiture, she combines figurative painting with abstraction, creating layered compositions suspended between visibility and disappearance.
Growing up between cultures has deeply influenced her understanding of identity as fluid, fragmented, and continuously transforming.
Kimura is a two-time winner of the Young Art Compass (Kompas Młodej Sztuki) ranking and her works have been exhibited at institutions including MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Cracow, as well as in solo and group exhibitions internationally.
Instagram: @liakimura