Sei Zenyoji "At a Brink"

Shimokitazawa Arts is pleased to present At a Brink, the first solo exhibition by Zenyoji Sei (formerly known as Zenyoji Ayu). Born in Tokyo in 1999, Zenyoji studied in the Glass Painting Department at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, Germany, from Oct, 2023 to Mar, 2024. In 2025, Zenyoji graduated from the Department of Design at Tokyo University of the Arts and is currently enrolled in the First Oil Painting Laboratory of the Graduate School of Fine Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts. Grounded in a persistent sense of personal unease, Zenyoji's practice explores visual expressions shaped by the political and social conditions of different eras, with a particular interest in themes such as war and gender. In 2025, the artist's graduation work, Generated Pimples—which questions idealized female images created to stimulate consumption through the use of AI-generated beauty and an acne-generating machine—garnered significant attention on social media. By presenting acne as a symbol of bodies erased in the pursuit of consumerist beauty ideals, the work made its presence visible through both humor and beauty, leaving a powerful and lasting impression. For this first solo exhibition, Zenyoji turns attention to the themes of the nation-state, the military, and conscription, subjects that have long occupied the artist's thinking. Drawing on the boy and girl characters depicted in Japan Self-Defense Force recruitment posters, Zenyoji creates a new body of work in stained glass—a medium historically associated with religion and institutional power. Through the luminous eyes of these figures, the exhibition invites viewers to reflect on the ongoing realities of war and the state of human rights today.