KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY is pleased to present Ryuhei Yokoyama’s solo exhibition, “MEMOLYRICSCAPE / JYOUKEI,” from Saturday, September 19, 2026. In this exhibition, Yokoyama will unveil new works in which he superimposes his own text, characters, and impulsive marks made with oil paint onto photographs of cities he has taken over the years.

Starting with black-and-white film street snaps, Ryuhei Yokoyama has captured the people passing through the city, walls, traces, and the time that accumulates there. For Yokoyama, who has picked up fragments scattered on the streets and observed the city’s “present” through photography, the street is not something predefined with meaning, but rather an accumulation of nameless stories that emit a distinct radiance only in the moment they catch someone’s eye.

The title “MEMOLYRICSCAPE” is a neologism coined by Yokoyama, combining “Memory,” “Lyrics,” and “Scape.” Memory, poetry, and landscape intertwine over time and unexpectedly emerge as fragmentary images and words. The text inscribed on the works is not intended for explanation or decoration; rather, like the act of photography itself, it is placed as a trace of a moment that caught the artist’s attention.

In this exhibition, the artist expands upon the expressive approach of her previous show. In addition to the unique texts and characters welling up from her inner world, he overlays abstract traces of paint—too impulsive to be simply called “paintings” or “drawings.” This process captures the fluctuations of memory that photography alone cannot fully capture, as well as emotions before they become words; it is also an act of leaving traces of time and the body within the works. Through the intervention of text and paint, the photographs capturing the city transcend mere documentation and emerge as “scenes” where the artist’s memories and emotions intersect. The “scenes” referred to here are not the landscapes before one’s eyes, but rather internal landscapes born when the artist’s memories, words, and the gestures of paint intersect with the traces left behind in the city.

The exhibition is planned to feature four large-scale works as its core, complemented by smaller pieces. In these works—in which photographs taken on film are printed onto canvas and then layered with oil paint—the artist draws upon the primal, analog gestures and materiality inherent in human expression. The overwriting and layering of images seen in WALL; the gaze toward time-imbued matter found in HOLES and SCARS; and the cultural and personal roots explored in LETTERS—all of these converge in this exhibition to take the form of photographs accompanied by words and paint.

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Noise reminiscent of unpredictable events encountered on the street, and a tactile quality like fading memories. As Yokoyama accumulates experience and knowledge, he returns instead to his initial impulses and a sensibility as open as a wild field. We cordially invite all to this exhibition, in which photographer Ryuhei Yokoyama once again offers the unique perspectives and sensibilities he has cultivated over the years, showcasing his current position as he renews his expression with greater freedom and cheerfulness.