Reika Takebayashi at Public Gallery, London

Public Gallery is pleased to present When we see invisible sea, a solo exhibition of paintings and ceramics by Reika Takebayashi. Across three floors of the gallery, Takebayashi tours imagined landscapes shaped by both personal memory and a speculative ecological past. Organized into three chapters — moss, rock and sea — the exhibition carves out an ascending metaphor for landforms shaped over eons by prehistoric oceans, echoing the quiet murmur of geological time.

During an artist residency in Finland, Takebayashi began to research the post-glacial history and terrain of Northern Europe, hiking Finland’s once submerged rocky peaks and studying the ecological forces that shape our environment over millennia. In works such as When we see invisible sea I (2025), Takebayashi depicts a frozen tundra characterized by snowy hilltops and mountainous fog — both an intimate portrait and dreamed landscape — marked by gentle, calligraphic gestures of green and blue.

These works simultaneously reference observations of natural phenomena in Kyoto, where mountains and rivers frame every window of Takebayashi’s studio, meditating on painting as a place of permanent occurrence. Cascading gestures dominate the composition in As we see the mosses I (2025), evoking the sensation of shouldering through a thick brush, pine needles and thick grass leaving marks across one’s skin. Such depictions of heavy overgrowth and lush forest contrast with works such as As we see the mosses III (2025); here, Takebayashi presents an open expanse, with winding paths and leafy vines encircling the open field below.

Thin layers of oil paint open portals across time and space, invoking both the stillness and movement of fluctuating landscapes. Grounded in the tactility and malleability of earth, the artist’s ceramic practice mirrors her painting process: two sides of a material and philosophical whole. When we see invisible sea VI (2025) balances the cosmic and microscopic, referencing spiraling constellations or perhaps layers of rock beneath the sea floor. With a reverence for the natural world, Takebayashi invites viewers to sense the invisible sea that lingers below the surface, calling upon earth’s enduring memory as witness to global transformation.

Reika Takebayashi (b. 1998, Osaka Prefecture, Japan) lives and works in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Recent solo exhibitions include You should care more about butterflies, Taka Ishii Gallery, Maebashi (2024); mtk+ vol.12 Reika Takebayashi, mtk+, Kyoto (2022); Vicissitude and Perpetuity, WALL GALLERY, Osaka (2022); P/P, Jodo Fukugoh, Kyoto (2020); and particle, gallery yolcha FLAT space, Osaka (2020). She has participated in group exhibitions at GALLERY SCENA, Tokyo; Public Gallery, London; biscuit gallery, Tokyo; Taka Ishii Gallery, Maebashi; Maritime Museum of Rauma, Finland; BEAK 585 GALLERY, Osaka; MtK satellite, Aichi; and Art Gallery & Alternative Space, Seibu Shibuya, Tokyo.