Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair
2024
Watanabe presents his inquiry into the ways we perceive the world through a diverse range of media, including photography, painting, sculpture, and occasionally performance. His works investigate how we visually organize and interpret things by fragmentarily arranging various elements—such as phenomena of reflection, transparency, light, and shadow, as well as traces of dripping paint, stains, or gestures of hanging.
The theme of his practice is the “segmentation of seeing.” The act of dividing the world is, by nature, subjective and fragmentary, interwoven with spatial and temporal awareness through coordinates and multiple viewpoints. Each fragment expands, forming new connections in the process.
The presentation includes a series of paintings employing the glaze technique. By layering transparent pigments, Watanabe creates deep, complex hues. In this series, Watanabe depicts his own chair from an angle where only three of its four legs are visible. The colors of the lower layers overlap with the transparent leg, oscillating between presence and invisibility. Watanabe’s practice offers viewers a multilayered sensory experience through the active engagement of seeing.
Selected exhibitions include 7-2-3-9-6-12 (solo), CADAN Yurakucho, Tokyo, 2024; spoon (solo), HAGIWARA PROJECTS, Tokyo, 2023; Lavender Hair, imlabor, Tokyo, 2021; The Mug Blues, LAVENDER OPENER CHAIR, Tokyo, 2020; Giant Chorus (solo), HAGIWARA PROJECTS, Tokyo, 2019; 4 boxes and pyramids, 4649, Tokyo, 2018; Ultramarine, Kodama Gallery, Tokyo, 2017; The Cat’s Texture, the Light that Turns Clouds Inside Out (solo), KomagomeSOKO, Tokyo, 2017
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #9 2025
oil on canvas
27.5 x 35.3 cm, 10.8 x 13.9 inches
HP-YW25001
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #10 2025
oil on canvas
27.5 x 35.3 cm, 10.8 x 13.9 inches
HP-YW25002
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #11 2025
oil on canvas
27.5 x 35.3 cm, 10.8 x 13.9 inches
HP-YW25003
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #12 2025
oil on canvas
27.5 x 35.3 cm, 10.8 x 13.9 inches
HP-YW25004
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #13 2025
oil on canvas
27.5 x 35.3 cm, 10.8 x 13.9 inches
HP-YW25005
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #14 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25006
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #15 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25007
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #16 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25008
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #17 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25009
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #18 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25010
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #19 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25011
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #20 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25012
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #21 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25013
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #22 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25014
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #23 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25015
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #24 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25016
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #25 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25017
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #26 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25018
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #27 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25019
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #28 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25020
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #29 2025
oil on canvas
27.5 x 35.3 cm, 10.8 x 13.9 inches
HP-YW25021
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #30 2025
oil on canvas
27.5 x 35.3 cm, 10.8 x 13.9 inches
HP-YW25022
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #31 2025
oil on canvas
27.5 x 35.3 cm, 10.8 x 13.9 inches
HP-YW25023
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #32 2025
oil on canvas
27.5 x 35.3 cm, 10.8 x 13.9 inches
HP-YW25024
Yohei Watanabe
Ideal Chair #33 2025
oil on canvas
22.5 x 27.3 cm, 8.8 x 10.7 inches
HP-YW25025
2019 HAGIWARA PROJECTS
2023 HAGIWARA PROJECTS
2024 CADAN Yurakucho