TOKYO.- MAKI Gallery is presenting Oita-based artist Shiori Tono’s solo exhibition Nandemonai at Tennoz, Tokyo.

Our everyday lives are filled with countless mundane moments—most of them carry no particular significance, leave no profound impact on anyone’s life, and eventually dissolve into the ether of our minds. Yet isn’t it true that our present existence is actually shaped by an accumulation of such “unremarkable” occurrences?

Nandemonai—meaning “ordinary” or “trivial” in Japanese—features a collection of paintings based on photographs Tono took of fleeting, unassuming scenes from her immediate surroundings. A Christmas cake shared at her part-time job; potted plants quietly sitting unnoticed as time goes by; eucalyptus leaves glistening in the sunlight— none of these are dramatic subjects, yet it is their very subtlety that imbues them with a precious tenderness.

Tono’s distinctive technique is itself a reflection of the fragmentary nature of memory. She applies masking tape to both the reference photo and the canvas in evenly spaced grids, turning each square into an isolated abstract composition that she methodically renders with oil paint. The artist also adds smaller pieces of tape to the canvas to mimic the natural wear and tear of the reference photo; thus, the peeled paint is the result of a dexterous combination of chance and calculated control. This process echoes the essence of memory itself, which becomes fractured, disjointed, and even worn away with the passage of time.

By meticulously painting the ephemeral vignettes she encounters, Tono creates a multitude of images that seem to shift and evolve alongside the flow of time, heightening our awareness of the here and now. Her works gently illuminate overlooked moments and carefully retrieve memories on the verge of fading into oblivion. We invite you to immerse yourself in them as you pause and contemplate the lingering vestiges of days gone by.

Born in 1994 in Oita Prefecture, where she continues to live and work today, Shiori Tono completed her MA in Arts and Design at Onomichi City University, specializing in oil painting. Tono draws from childhood photo albums and photographs she has taken herself, using her work to deftly express the fragility and preciousness of those fleeting recollections that come to us in unexpected moments. As our minds absorb and accumulate increasing amounts of information every day, existing memories become buried, sometimes even abstracted or fragmented. Tono engages with this universal experience by skillfully depicting the ambiguous nature of memory as warped and deteriorating images on canvas, often imitating the distortion found in old digital files. The specific years in which the original photos were taken vary; the more obscure the memory, the more fractured the painted image becomes, making it increasingly difficult to identify the pictured subject. Yet despite the inevitable fact that most memories are eventually lost, Tono carefully gathers the fragments that remain in her mind, resurrecting them square by square on a three-centimeter-by-three-centimeter grid. Using masking tape to create a lattice in which every other line is exposed, the process of layering oil paint from one end of the canvas to the other is the artist’s attempt to document her own existence.

Tono’s recent solo exhibitions include あってない/ Atte nai, MAKI Gallery (Tokyo, 2022); fragments of memory, MAKI Gallery (Tokyo, 2020); and Anohino, Gallery Bar Baku (Hiroshima, 2018). She has also participated in multiple group shows, primarily in Tokyo. In 2023, the artist marked her North American debut at The Armory Show, where her work garnered significant attention from the public.