Sayaka Toda : 庭に沈む -Fading into the Garden-
Apr 17 - Apr 26, 2026
PRESS RELEASE:
この度THE LOOP GALLERYは、2026年4月17日（金）から4月26日（日）まで、Colony Minami Aoyama（東京・南青山）にて、戸田沙也加による個展《庭に沈む -Fading into the Garden-》を開催いたします。
戸田沙也加は、女子美術大学大学院を修了後、絵画を起点に写真・映像・インスタレーションへと表現の幅を広げてきたアーティストです。植物や裸婦像、女性をモチーフに「美と醜」「記憶と忘却」を主題として扱い、2025年には横浜美術館での個展「沈黙と花」を開催。2026年、VOCA展にて大賞であるVOCA賞を受賞しました。
戸田が9年にわたり向き合ってきたのは、ある物故彫刻家のアトリエに残された200体以上の裸婦像です。写真、絵画、インスタレーションと複数のメディウムを横断しながら、男性の眼差しによってつくられた彼女たちを、戸田は女性の眼差しで記録し、その沈黙に耳を傾け続けてきました。女性の身体をめぐる歴史が今まさに問い直されているこの時代に、戸田の探求は静かな切実さを帯びています。
「裸婦像」のシリーズの結実となる本展では、絵画作品を新旧合わせて展示します。是非会場にてご高覧ください。
THE LOOP GALLERY is pleased to present Fading into the Garden, a solo exhibition by Sayaka Toda.
Sayaka Toda (b. 1988, Saitama) completed her graduate studies at Joshibi University of Art and Design, before expanding her practice from painting into photography, video, and installation. Working with motifs of plants and the female body, her work explores themes of beauty and ugliness, memory and forgetting. In 2025, she presented a solo exhibition Silence and Flowers at the Yokohama Museum of Art. In 2026, she was awarded the VOCA Prize — the highest honor of the VOCA Exhibition, one of Japan’s most prestigious platforms for emerging artists.
For nine years, Toda has turned her attention to the hundreds of nude female figurines left behind in the atelier of a deceased sculptor. While the figures were created under a male gaze, Toda has approached them through a female one — documenting their presence and bearing witness to their silence. At a time when the history of the female body, long shaped by that same gaze, is being profoundly reconsidered, her inquiry carries a quiet and urgent weight.
This exhibition, which brings together new and existing paintings from the series, marks the culmination of that nine-year journey.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
長年にわたり裸婦像を制作し続けてきたある彫刻家のアトリエに取り残された、夥しい数の裸婦像たちに惹かれてから、9年ほどが経つ。
行政による区画整理によって周囲の建物が取り壊され、更地へと変わっていく中で、手入れされなくなった庭の草木に裸婦像が覆われていく光景は、彼女たちが「美の象徴」としての役割から徐々に解放されていくかのように思われた。
そしてついに昨年の夏、アトリエの解体と裸婦像の撤去に立ち会った。 残されていた裸婦像のほとんどは人の手に渡り、庭に横たわっていたものは重機によって壊されていった。
今もなお、記憶の中の彼女たちに想いを巡らせている。
It has been nearly nine years since I was first drawn to the overwhelming number of nude female figurines left behind in the atelier of a sculptor who had spent a lifetime making them.
As administrative rezoning led to the demolition of surrounding buildings and the land was cleared, the figurines became gradually enveloped by the untended plants of the garden. To me, it was as though they were slowly being released from their role as symbols of beauty.
Last summer, I was present for the dismantling of the atelier and the removal of the figurines. Most were taken away by others; those that had been lying in the garden were destroyed by heavy machinery.
Even now, my thoughts return to them.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
