From October 25 to December 14, 2024, WKM Gallery is proud to present Peaceable Kingdom, the first-ever solo exhibition in Hong Kong by Japanese artist Jun Takahashi. Perhaps most well-known as the founder of legendary clothing brand UNDERCOVER, Takahashi has been creating paintings alongside his fashion work for many decades, though he only began publicly showcasing his artworks in 2023. The current exhibition offers a deeper glimpse into the dark, surreal universe that has served as the source of Takahashi’s creative output over the past thirty years. Featuring all-new works, including the first public showing of 3 canvases that were used as central motifs in his S/S 2025 Men’s Collection, Peaceable Kingdom is a portrayal of the conflict between the chaos of today’s world and the artist’s own deep desire for peace. This exhibition marks his largest to date, and his first major show outside of Japan.

The works in Peaceable Kingdom are a continuation of Takahashi’s ongoing exploration of the tension between disorder and harmony. Inspired by the song of the same name by Patti Smith, the exhibition is composed of distorted portraits and abstract figures in dream-like landscapes, many dotted with apples and clouds, both recurring motifs in the show. While the apples – bleeding into puddles of red, floating into space, or disappearing into invisibility – seem to represent the complicated, interconnected nature of innocence and decay, the clouds offer an overtone of hope that permeates the entire exhibition.

Both objects make appearances in many of Takahashi’s cinematic portraits. While some of the figures reference dystopian fiction and eerie settings, echoing the underlying theme of psychological turmoil and existential dread, others represent people from his own daily life, juxtaposing subcultural references with a more personal, intimate dimension. Perhaps the most noticeable feature of the portrait works is their lack of eyes, a recurring motif which he has been incorporating since 2016. Deprived of their eyes, the shadowy profiles sink into anonymity, transcending their own cultural contexts to become universal. Takahashi has described the act of erasing his subjects’ eyes as a symbolic way of ingesting the “vision” of each person and turning them into a reflection of himself. At the same time, it references Takahashi’s fascination with imperfection and the eccentric beauty that arises from the raw, incomplete, and fragmented.

Takahashi’s original character Pinkman also makes multiple appearances in works such as Room of contemplation and Room of abandonment. A weary soul tortured by existence, the faceless Pinkman serves as a contrast to the portraits, an abstracted and symbolic figure that represents human emotion in its purest essence. However, though Takahashi’s moody and subdued colour palettes depict such sombre images, small glimmers of hope appear here and there – clouds and patches of blue sky punctuate many of the works, offering moments of respite from the emotional weight of the works and hinting that peace may still exist amid the chaos.

Pinkman also reappears in the teal-toned Future Days trio of works, alongside humanoid animal figures and collages of mystical symbols. The most surreal and abstract of the works on view, these three works first appeared on the runway as fabric prints in Takahashi’s S/S 2025 Men’s Collection. The original canvases are unveiled in this exhibition for the first time. This unusual dialogue between the gallery space and the runway, a phenomenon that only someone with a deep connection to both is capable of, exemplifies how Takahashi’s creative output exists as a cohesive whole in which the boundaries between disciplines blur.

Takahashi’s first solo show outside Japan is both a reflection of his deepening engagement with painting, and a look into the meticulously crafted world that underlies the practice of one of the most influential figures in fashion and art today. For decades, he has blurred the lines between the beautiful and the grotesque, and this exhibition continues his profound exploration into the human psyche. What Takahashi seeks to capture through his works and his entire practice is the very nature of the human experience: the complex and inseparable nature of violence and suffering, peace and joy.