“MAD IMAGE” Curated by Namonaki Sanemasa × UMEZAWA Kazuki (TOKYO)

Mizuma Art Gallery is pleased to present “MAD IMAGE”, a group exhibition co-curated by Namonaki Sanemasa and UMEZAWA Kazuki, opening on Friday, September 12, 2025.

Featuring 16 artists from various generations and genres, this exhibition brings together a diverse array of expressions, including painting, sculpture, video, and sound installation—all seen through the lens of Namonaki and Umezawa, whose creative practices draw upon the visual culture, information, and communities of the internet.

In a time when digital technology permeates every corner of life, these artists continue to create, capturing the spirit of our era whilst also giving form to the shifting boundaries of our own perception and thought. We invite you to experience the living pulse of this moment, brought to life through their art.

Participating Artists/Groups

Ikitsugi, imoutoid, UMEZAWA Kazuki, OIRA, OKUMURA Minami, GILLOCHINDOX☆GILLOCHINDAE, Kukamura, Gekidan INUCURRY (DOROINU), SHIBUTA Naoaki, Namonaki Sanemasa, TAKEHISA Naoki, NOHGOKU Yuni, HASEGAWA Asuki, FUKUCHI Hideomi, YAGI Heijiro, YOSHIOKA Yamato

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Statement by Namonaki Sanemasa

In July 2024, Umezawa and I were invited to exhibit at a museum in Lithuania. One night during the installation, we found ourselves having dinner at a bar with Mr. Mizuma and others from Mizuma Art Gallery. The gallery opened in 1994, the same year I was born, and yet, despite the generational gap, they listened attentively to our perspectives on contemporary art. As we chatted, sometimes dipping into debate, the conversation naturally took off.

“Then why don’t the two of you curate something? Something we’ve never seen before.”

Mr. Mizuma offered those words almost offhandedly.

That night, we started talking about the exhibition. Strangely, the overall vision came together effortlessly.

There’s a culture known as MAD. Mostly found online, the term refers to derivative works made by editing existing footage or audio from anime and games. Since at least the 1990s, it has existed as a kind of underground creative practice. Today, it is even beginning to seep into the commercial sphere. In this exhibition, I would like to explore the act of creation using “MAD culture” as a starting point, specifically its processes of deconstruction and reconstruction. In daily life, we are constantly encountering division and disconnection. It is becoming increasingly difficult to envision a coherent “singular world.” The 16 participants in this exhibition range in age from their teens to their fifties and cover a wide variety of fields, including painting, video, animation, graphic design, and music. Their practices involve earnestly piecing together fragments of a divided era to bring the present into focus, if even just for a moment. Perhaps it is precisely these kinds of actions that reflect the times we live in.

Lastly, I would like to share a bit about myself, the one who helped plan this exhibition. I first became interested in art around 2011. Before that, I was just an ordinary high school student who liked anime and archaeology. After discovering the avant-garde art movements in Fukuoka, I started reading every art magazine I could get my hands on and found myself increasingly absorbed in the world of art.

It was also around this time that I came to know Umezawa, my co-curator.

These days, it feels like the passion and discourse that once tied things together have grown quiet. Only the market seems to continue expanding as a common space, but in that space, nothing is really being reconnected.

Still, I want to think about what might be possible in these desolate commons. It might take some time. So, for now, let’s build a small hut where we can rest for a moment. Something about the size of a shack – a place to sit and think for a while.

Statement by UMEZAWA Kazuki

The overall framework for this exhibition was formed during conversations between Namonaki Sanemasa, myself, and Director Mizuma at the National Gallery of Art in Lithuania in 2024. Originally, the plan was for Sanemasa to curate the show alone, but I later joined as co-curator.

I saw significance in the fact that the two of us would be curating at Mizuma Art Gallery while also participating as exhibiting artists. With that in mind, I assisted with the artist selection process. It could be said that the decision was based more on a personal desire to see this work now than out of consideration for “context” or “history.” I am willing to take responsibility for that choice as it stands at this moment in time.

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Exhibition Curators:

Namonaki Sanemasa

Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1994, based in Fukuoka.


Since 2015, he has centred his activities primarily on Twitter (now X), creating works that reflect an aesthetic shaped by his interest in images and anime characters circulating online, as well as by the technologies of touchscreens and social media. His work spans painting, installation, sculpture, and video, capturing what he calls the “landscapes of the internet age.” In recent years, he has held solo exhibitions at Mizuma Art Gallery in 2022 and 2024, and participated in the exhibition Beauties, Ghosts and Samurai at the Lithuanian National Museum of Art in 2024, actively presenting his work both in Japan and abroad.

UMEZAWA Kazuki

Born in Saitama in 1985, where he continues to live and work. Graduated from the Department of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Musashino Art University in 2008. Umezawa samples the vast array of images drifting through the internet, reconstructing this flood of visual information into paintings on supports such as monitors, canvases, and printed matter.

His activities extend beyond Japan, with solo exhibitions held in New York, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. His works are included in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Mori Art Museum, and the Lithuanian National Museum of Art. He also works under the name “Umelabo” and is represented by CASHI.