Mizue Kitada “Immortal Star”

Friday, February 13 – Saturday, February 28, 2026

Mizue Kitada “Immortal Star”
Friday, February 13 – Saturday, February 28, 2026 13:00–19:00
Closed on Sundays, Mondays and Holidays
Venue：LAG (LIVE ART GALLERY)
Daiwa Jingumae Bldg. 1F, 2-4-11 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001
Opening reception: Saturday, February 14, 18:00–19:00

LAG is pleased to present “Immortal Star,” a solo exhibition by photographer Mizue Kitada, on view from Friday, February 13 to Saturday, February 28. This exhibition is held to commemorate the publication of her new photobook Immortal Star (printed by Live Art Books).

Born in Wakayama, where she continues to live and work, Kitada received the Grand Prize at the Shiogama Photo Festival in 2016, and in 2018 published the photobook We Are All One Skin, based on her award-winning work. Since then, she has continued her photographic practice from within her immediate surroundings, inseparable from the time of everyday life.

“Immortal Star,” presented in this exhibition, is a new photographic series Kitada has been working on in recent years.

Through photographing those close to her—people, dogs, plants, and other presences—Kitada has sought to fix in her images the tactile texture of everyday life, along with a felt sense of living presence within it. Over time, this accumulation has led her to a point where her attention turns, regardless of whether something remains in memory or record, toward the very fact of existence itself.

Even if something slips from memory, the fact that it once existed does not disappear. And the way it exists can never be taken away—“Immortal Star” was born from Kitada’s belief in this unwavering nature of “existence.”

This series looks steadily toward the core of “ways of being” that cannot be subsumed by another’s measure, and presents their inviolability through photography. People, dogs, mikans, plants, inanimate objects, and other presences from Kitada’s surroundings—each carrying layers of time formed through encounters, crossings, and relationships in daily life—remain in the photographs while retaining their own singularity.

During the exhibition, a talk event with the artist will be held on Saturday, February 14, welcoming Maiko Kobayashi, curator at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. We warmly invite you to visit the exhibition.

—Artist Statement—

What exists/What exists but is ignored/What is noticed/
They are all different, but all were there before you found them, and will remain after you leave, whether they are people, places, or lost items.

Although every being is complete in itself, many people still measure others by their standards, cross boundaries unasked, and voice opinions uninvited. In such behavior, there is a gaze that seeks to take, to possess.

I was born and raised in Wakayama, Japan, and still live there.
My family are farmers, growing mikans and persimmons.
Ever since I was little, I played in the mountain groves, and even now, when I lie down among the fields, I feel a deep sense of comfort.
I listen carefully to the sound of the wind rustling through the trees, feel ants climbing up my wrist, and breathe in the scent of earth and grass.
Little by little, I feel myself, a human, becoming a part of nature.
The true meaning of comfort is the feeling of shedding one’s human skin, returning to life’s origin and softly saying, “I’m home.”

Through photography and through living, I came to imagine that a dog, mikan, plant, and human—every being—is a life wrapped in a single sheet of skin.
An animistic point of view in the bottom of my heart was cultivated while I was taking photos, helping my family to farm, gazing at my dog, living my life, or spending time with the women who let me photograph them.

All life—animate or inanimate, named or nameless, visible or invisible—is a singular existence, and lives with this hard truth, regardless of form or circumstance, for better or worse.
Which is scary, but interesting at the same time.
Whether it’s a living thing, a rock, a city, untouched nature, an abandoned arcade, BOOKOFF (a chain of second-hand bookstores), a watch, a lost item, a mikan, me, or you, life is complete in itself.

Mizue Kitada

PROFILE

Mizue Kitada

Born in 1991 in Wakayama, Japan, where she still lives.
Publications include “We Are All One Skin” and “Inubot Kairanban”.
In 2016, she received the Grand Prize for her portfolio at the Shiogama Photo Festival, and as part of the award, her photo book “We Are All One Skin” was published.
Under the handle “inubot” on the former Twitter (now X), she shares daily photographs of her beloved dog. In 2019, she published the photo essay “Inubot Kairanban” (literally, “community circular board”) with Fusosha Publishing.

Selected Exhibitions
2014　“1_WALL”（Guardian Garden,Tokyo）
2018　“We Are All One Skin”（Alt_Medium/Tokyo）
2018　“We Are All One Skin”（Build Space,Miyagi）
2019　“inubot”（Alt_Medium/Tokyo）

Twitter(now X)/Instagram：@inu_10kg

Mizue Kitada “Immortal Star”

PROFILE

BOOKS

“Immortal Star”