Toshiko Oiyama, The Far Ago Sea 2, ink, graphite and paper carving on paper, 78 x 160 cm (triptych)
$3600
Toshiko Oiyama
Conversation
14 November - 5 December 2026
Art Atrium 48 is proud to present Toshiko Oiyama’s latest exhibition, Conversation, a body of work that explores mujo, the Japanese concept that all things are transitory. For over a decade, Oiyama has used drawing to ask questions that cannot be answered in words, examining what it means to exist in a constant state of change.
Central to this exhibition is an interplay between intentionality and chance. Free-flowing ink and water dance across the paper, while the sheet itself is scratched, torn, punctured, cut and bent. Threads glide in and out of the surface, becoming dots, lines, planes and thrashing marks as a grid appears and disappears. Embracing the distinctive effects and ‘happy accidents’ that arise from this materiality, Oiyama allows each drawing to unfold as an ongoing conversation, in which everything responds to everything else and logic intermingles with the unpredictable.
Beneath this ever-shifting surface, Oiyama asks whether a deeper force might endure, a question that echoes physicists’ ongoing search for a Theory of Everything. Conversation contemplates the paradox at the heart of mujo: that impermanence may itself contain the unchanging law that governs all things. The drawings stand as traces of this questioning, poised between continual change and an underlying order.
Exhibition Opening
Exhibition Opening to be launched by:
Melinda Hunt
Walking Artist, Founder of DRAW Space Sydney
Saturday 14 November 2026
2:00 - 4:00 pm
Artist Demonstration & Exhibition Tour
Join Toshiko Oiyama for a live demonstration of her drawing process, followed by a guided tour of Conversation.
Saturday 5 December 2026
2:00 - 4:00 pm
Artist Statement
“Drawing is my way of asking questions that cannot be answered in words. One question I have been asking for over a decade in my art practice is “What is mujo?” Mujo is a Japanese word that signifies that all is transitory. But what does it mean for all things to be in a constant state of change?
Conversation explores the nature of transience through mixture of intentionality and chance. The free-flowing ink and water dance on the paper, while the paper is scratched, torn, punctured, cut or bent. The gliding threads become dots, lines, planes or thrashing marks, going in and out of the paper through the systemic grid that appears and disappears. The unique materiality of paper, ink and threads are exploited to the full, and visually happy accidents among them are embraced. Conversing, everything changes in response to everything else. Randomness and logic intermingle.
Is there an unchanging force beneath the surface transience that we live in? After all, physicists the worlds over have been trying to find the Theory of Everything that created our universe. The exhibition Conversation explores the fundamental nature of mujo, which also seems to contain—paradoxically—the unchanging law that governs everything. These are drawings as traces of this act of questioning.”
— Toshiko Oiyama
About the Artist
Born in Japan, Toshiko Oiyama studied visual communication in the United States and had a long career in graphic design in the USA, Holland, Indonesia, Singapore and New Zealand before coming to Australia in 2001. Changing direction in Sydney, she studied fine art, obtaining Master’s and PhD degrees from the University of New South Wales.
She draws inspiration equally from the Australian outback, the ancient pilgrimage trails of Japan, science and philosophy. She feels that her exposure to both fine and applied arts, to various cultures and peoples, and indeed to all experiences, continues to enrich her perception of life and, therefore, her art. Her practice is focused on drawing, a field whose boundaries she continues to push, working in both 2D and 3D.
She exhibits regularly and has won prizes and grants including the Tim Olsen Drawing Prize, an artist residency in Paris and the UNSW Postgraduate Award. She has been a finalist in the Dobell Drawing Prize, the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award, the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing and the Kedumba Drawing Award. Oiyama currently divides her time between her art practice and teaching drawing at the National Art School, both of which she enjoys enormously.
Full Catalogue to be posted soon.
ARTWORK
