Rings of Mars

aaploit presents Rings of MARS, a two-person exhibition by AKIBA Kohei and OSA Seiichiro, on view from August 15 through August 31, 2025. The following text emerged from a dialogue between the two artists.

The title of this exhibition originates in the two artists' shared curiosities. During a phone meeting, AKIBA Kohei recommended a song—"Mars, Arizona" by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion—while I mentioned the "disappearance of Saturn's rings"¹ that occurred twice this past spring. We were pleased and amused to discover that our respective enthusiasms had independently landed on different planets in the solar system. This string of words, which may at first raise a question mark, could be said to provisionally represent our approaches to making work and to play, to mystery and imagination, and to the gradations between our respective ways of thinking.

Of course, as is widely known, no rings like Saturn's have been confirmed around Mars at present. And yet, upon investigation: "some researchers theorize that Mars had multiple generations of moons and rings over billions of years."² We had already decided on the title before encountering this article, so the impact was considerable—a moment of contact between two painters across an inconceivable span of time and space. Having met at university decades ago, we have maintained a good relationship while continuing to paint. Within those years—long and short at once—the count toward vast transformation must have been ticking all along, and will continue. MARS and Saturn, the formation and disappearance of rings—. We are certain, at the very least, that this exhibition will mark a point within that ongoing process, and will not lose its blink.

https://www.astroarts.co.jp/article/hl/a/13771_ph250324 ¹

https://www.businessinsider.jp/article/214159/ ²

In cooperation with Yutaka Kikutake Gallery

For inquiries regarding the exhibition, please contact info@aaploit.com.