Gallery Naruyama
Momo Okabe “DILDO / Bible / ILMATAR”
2024 July 12th (FRI) – August 11th (SUN)

TOGA AOYAMA the second flagship store in Tokyo, has launched a new exhibition project TOGA TRIANGLE.
For the fifth project with Gallery Naruyama, we will be exhibiting the works of photographer Momo Okabe.

ILMATAR／2020／©Momo Okabe

Momo Okabe’s works, expressed through unique colors, are documents of memories with a beloved lover, feelings of fear and despair towards death, violent energy that comes from anger, a personal novel that depicts the mental landscape acquired after a long and dark conflict with the past. The elegy, filled with shocking images of earthquake disasters, debris, and gender reassignment surgery, by no means depicts the sadness of demise, but rather the beginning of a new energy, of courageous conflict portrayed in a very natural way.

ILMATAR／2020／©Momo Okabe

This exhibition features eight pieces selected by the artist from “DILDO” a photobook that depicts her relationship between two lovers who have gone through gender transition, “Bible” which consists of images captured in Tokyo, Miyagi and India, and four pieces from “ILMATAR” which captures a six year period of the artists life including pregnancy and childbirth as an asexual person.

“Photography is the process of documenting in order to forget extremely personal experiences” says Momo Okabe.
This is will be her first solo exhibition in Japan in four years.

Bible／2014／©Momo Okabe

Gallery Naruyama

Gallery Naruyama opened in 1997 with a collective exhibition of photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden. Since then, the gallery has continued to question ‘new value’ and collects works based on science, medicine and anthropology. From Atsushi Suwa who depicts the deepest inner sides of his subjects through meticulous interviews, Cosima von Bonin who is unique at first glance but possess a sense of irony, the gallery has also introduced young talents from Japan such as sculptor Kosuke Ikeshima, painter Yugo Kohrogi, photographer Momo Okabe and graphic writer WANTO. The gallery also has a collection of surrealists Pierre Molinier, Hans Bellmer, Cecil Beaton, Tamotsu Yato, medical photographs from the Meiji period, and photographs of Conan Doyle’s former possessions of psychical research material.

Momo Okabe

1981 Born in Tokyo, lived in France until four years old. 1999 Received a special award at the 8th “Exhibition of New Cosmos of Photography” selected by Nobuyoshi Araki. 2002 Receives award at the 19th “3.3sqm Exhibition”. After being highly praised abroad, selected at the “KASSEL PHOTOBOOK AWARD” in 2014. 2015 Winner of the “FOAM’s Paul Huf” award.
Main Solo exhibitions; “Bible & Dildo” (2015/Gallery Naruyama), “Momo Okabe” (2015/FOAM, Amsterdam), “ILMATAR” (2020/Gallery Naruyama).
Photobooks include; “UNSEEN/TSUNAMI (with Kohey Kanno)” (2012/Dashwood Books, NY), 2013 “DILDO” (2013/ session press, NY), “Bible” (2014/session press, NY), “ILMATAR” (2020/Mandarake). Okabe’s works were selected to be in a publication which focuses on Japanese female photographers, “I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now” (2024/Aperture). An exhibition with the same title will travel around the world in the span of four years starting with the International Photography Festival in Arles.
Her works were also exhibited in the group exhibition “Transcendence” by KYOTOGRAPHIE at the International Photography Festival in Arles.