Makoto Arai, Visual Creator for King Gnu, Holds First Solo Exhibition 'SUPER PRIVATE: Jijitsu Mugon'

Gallery.S, operated by SANZEN Co., Ltd., will host 'SUPER PRIVATE: Jijitsu Mugon,' the first solo exhibition by Makoto Arai, at the alternative space Space K (B1F of √K Contemporary) in Kagurazaka, Tokyo, from July 4 to July 28, 2026. Curated by Yosuke Takahashi, the exhibition is constructed as a spatial installation of neon and paintings, centered on Arai's personal experiences.

Makoto Arai studied oil painting in high school and majored in industrial design in university. Since 2018, he has been part of the creative label PERIMETRON, working extensively on artwork, visual design, and spatial design for artists leading the Japanese music scene, including King Gnu and MILLENNIUM PARADE. Moving away from his focus on client work, Arai is taking a step toward autonomous production as an artist, using memories and sensations from a time when his mind and body were deeply shaken as a starting point.

The visual expressions Arai has created so far have consistently featured a unique sense where life and death, celebration and ruin, beauty and horror, and order and collapse exist simultaneously. In this exhibition, this visual language connects with the artist's inner self, expanding into a space that is more personal while also connecting to the inner fluctuations we all experience today.

The exhibition title 'Jijitsu Mugon' represents experiences engraved within the artist that remain inexpressible even after facing them fully. Memories that slip away the more one tries to put them into words, the space between reality and unreality, anxiety and exaltation, intimacy and loneliness, brightness and darkness—this exhibition explores a world where such contradictory sensations overlap, comprised of one new neon work and nine new paintings.

The exhibition unfolds like scenes in a movie. Nine scenes are placed in the venue, and visitors move through a darkened space, following fragmentary stories raised by light and paintings. It is not an exhibition meant to explain a single event, but an attempt to re-examine experiences that are not easily spoken of and open them up to the outside world as works of art.