Moto Yoshikuni “DEEP RIVER”

LAG is pleased to announce the solo exhibition “DEEP RIVER” by Moto Yoshikuni, on view from Friday, November 21 to Saturday, December 13, 2025.

Born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1986, moving to Japan in 1996, Yoshikuni depicts his personal experiences and takes in the stories of others, in a practice dominated by paintings and publications. In 2020 he launched MOTO magazine, which brings together the experiences of Africans living in Japan, in their own words, in 2025 publishing the third issue of the magazine (Live Art Books). In March 2026 Yoshikuni will also take part in the exhibition “Blow Like a Monsoon—Contemporary Afro-Asian Arts with Great Journey and Exchange” at The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu.

DEEP RIVER will present new work by Yoshikuni, based on projects since 2023’s “Arrival” series. Though conscious of the limitations occasioned by overarching frameworks like the nation state, and national borders, “Deep River” will offer, as paintings, ideas and emotions that are universal. Many of Yoshikuni’s works portray people, and taking as their departure point these people and their relationships to the artist, reverberate with history, society, and the memories etched on that place, highlighting multilayered circumstances and conjuring up myriad thoughts and images for the viewer.

During the exhibition period, on Saturday, November 22, we will host a talk event titled “Tracing the DEEP RIVER,” featuring writer and translator Sora Enomoto. The event will be limited to 40 participants and requires advance registration.
We warmly invite you to join us for this special occasion.

—Artist Statement—

Deep River, Lord, I wanna cross over into campground

—Negro spiritual

 
From 2023 or so, less busy with the production and exhibition of my colored pencil series “Arrival,” I decided it was time to revisit where I myself had come from. Around this time I started talking to Zimbabweans who had moved to Japan, and writing down their words. These were eventually compiled into MOTO magazine Vol. 003 (June 2025), and here is what I wrote in the afterword:

“Consider the trajectories of human migration, like coins dropped and scattered on the ground. What is it that governs our lives? Can we never escape control by the state, money, passport? Is there no choice but to conform? Yet still each of us finds ingenious ways to be ourselves, whatever our station in life; our thoughts far away, hoping those precious to us are living their own best lives.”

There are people whose lives remain rooted in their place of birth (not necessarily by choice), and people forced to leave their home for a life elsewhere. I gave the magazine the subtitle in Japanese of konkyochi meaning “base,” but chose “Deep River” for the title of this exhibition of drawings from 2025 out of a desire to connect to others by touching on consciousness and emotion as undercurrents of history.

“Deep River” refers to the tranquil flow of time in the manner of an ancient river, and to the anticipation of convergence with distant places and people. I too wanna cross that river.
 

Moto Yoshikuni