From June 6 to August 29, 2026, WKM Gallery is delighted to present Japanese artist Iori Nagashima’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong, BETWEEN. Known for his soft, subdued oil paintings of everyday objects and daily routines, the exhibition will showcase the evolution of Nagashima’s paintings following his extended residency at SIDE SPACE. The series of new works revolves around motifs and subjects he encountered in the city and local community, reflecting his immersion into the complex layers of Hong Kong. 

Nagashima’s still lives and figure paintings are defined by absence as much as presence. In his canvases, shadows and shades of grey are sources of energy: evidence of a waxing ray of sunlight crawling from one side of the room to the other, the scent of a quiet summer noon drifting in through an open window, the lingering warmth of a body recently departed. Items well-loved or well-used often serve as subject matter (clothes and shoes left strewn about, an alarm clock on standby), but within this exhibition, we find subtle hints that the artist is no longer in Tokyo. A dragonfruit, plucked from a market somewhere, lays in its final resting place as it waits to be eaten. Ladders resting on sidewalks, a common sight around town, await their next shift. The scenes are not timeless; rather, they depict a specific time, a singular reality made of people and objects with their own histories. 

The distance between subject and viewer is a recurring theme in the artist’s practice, one that was sharpened by the experience of living temporarily in an unfamiliar city. As a stranger in a strange land, the world becomes a new thing to be unwrapped layer by layer, and Hong Kong– an intensely layered city, both physically and metaphorically– therefore served as a site of renewal and reflection for the artist. The architectural makeup of the city became a direct material and conceptual influence on the artist’s approach. In contrast to Japan’s high-speed scrap-and-build model of urban planning, Hong Kong’s multifunctional skyscrapers and crowded residential buildings often survive to old age, resulting in wisened facades covered in layers of colorful paint jobs. The artist found himself particularly drawn to the sticky coats of thick, oil-based wall paint often used in the area. 

For Nagashima, this phenomenon served as a larger symbolism of the city of Hong Kong. Periods of colonialism, migration, and exchange have lead to a metropolitan melting pot of different identities and communities, an unfamiliar contrast to the homogeneity of Japan. Unapologetically visible and coarse, these textured accumulations were transposed onto the artist’s canvases, where his thin, elegant coats of paint transformed into thick, tactile layers to match the energy of the city. 

Created during a period of displacement and observation, the works reflect on how relationships become newly visible when one’s environment changes. In an increasingly globalized and homogenized world, Nagashima’s works suggest that the distinctions between our realities are often found in the invisible strata that shape the foundation of daily life: atmosphere, memory, perception, and space. The word “between” denotes an intermediary space or pause, as well as the existence of two or more points held in relation. The exhibition approaches this space as a site of observation and connection where we may question our deeper values regarding continuity, care, and truth. Through quiet scenes and layered surfaces, BETWEEN asks how we perceive one another within the complexity of contemporary urban life.