Art

painting

Kaya Tokuhisa is an interdisciplinary contemporary artist working across directing, music, and visual art, whose practice lies at the intersection of fine and conceptual art. Under the mentorship of Japanese painter Noriaki Sangawa, a member of the internationally recognised art group Ryu, Kaya has developed a distinctive approach grounded in conceptual realism.

Her work operates within classical and contemporary realism, enriched by a conceptual dimension. In the series Cruel Still Life (Krutožitja), everyday objects are personified and arranged like characters in theatrical scenes. Here, themes of empathy and cruelty emerge: the compositions are charged with humor, irony, and playfulness, yet evoke an undercurrent of unease. In Terra Periens (Disappearing Earth), the dynamic is reversed. The Earth herself is personified through the figure of a woman — fragile yet defiant, bearing witness to her own destruction. This body of work functions as an environmental allegory, addressing both collective responsibility and individual sensibility.

Kaya’s work was first internationally recognised at the Utazu Art Award 2016 in Japan, where her debut entry was selected for the exhibition catalogue cover. Since then, her paintings have been exhibited in solo and group shows, notably at Leyden Gallery in London, alongside artists including Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Paula Rego, Nan Goldin, and Leonor Fini. Her works are held in private collections across the UK, France, Japan, Slovenia, and the Netherlands.

"With a background in film-making, Kaya Tokuhisa’s ‘dramatic’ still life oil paintings offer a re-interpretation of the traditional still life genre, which is unusually conceptual. Lighting is used to create the appropriate mood of a particular situation, just as it would on a film set or stage, and her objects take on an anthropomorphic significance as human characters."

-Adriana Černe
art historian, curator at Leyden gallery and lecturer at The Royal College of Art

collectors

You are welcome to use the contact form to inquire about the availability of paintings, prints (giclée) and commissions. You are invited to follow the dedicated art instagram account @kayatokuhisa.art

exhibitions