DALLAS ART FAIR
Group Show: for Dallas Art Fair - April 2026
Kazuma Koike, Mayumi Yamase, Andre Walker, Joji Nakamura.
The Fridge is participating in Dallas Art Fair 2026, taking place from April 17 to April 19, with a Preview Day on April 16. We look forward to seeing you. Booth E5
JOJI NAKAMURA
Nakamura’s practice moves between recognizable figures and abstract forms. Recurring motifs and soft, cloud-like color shifts define his language. His imagery emerges instinctively from the gestures he has developed over the past 15 years. The paintings follow a consistent format shaped by his ongoing process. Through his daily, almost ritual practice, he introduces new elements while keeping a clear continuity in his work.
Born in 1974, Joji Nakamura currently lives and works in Yokohama, Japan. Joji Nakamura paints with his hands using acrylic, gesso, graphite and ink on canvas. His extruded faces are instantly recognizable. Nakamura’s dynamic strokes transform into his own rendition of a classic portrait, a figure painting or a surreal landscape created with his body. He has held exhibitions in Paris, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Japan and the US. For the past few years, Nakamura added colors to the monotone repertoire paintings of his early years, presenting portraits in soft blotchy hues. Past recent shows include Kaplan Projects in Mallorca, Zieher Smith in Nashville, Galerie Mikiko Fabiani in Paris, Scooters For Peace in Tokyo and The Fridge in New York. Past Art fairs include Untitled Miami Beach and Felix Art Fair Los Angeles.
KAZUMA KOIKE
Born in 1980 and lives in Osaka, Japan.
Koike spent his childhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, attended high school in Barcelona, Spain, and graduated from the Department of Sculpture, College of Art at Nihon University in Tokyo. The works of Spanish sculptor Josép Clarà has inspired him to follow suit. Growing up in a multi-cultural environment, Koike is interested in “Shinbutsu-Shugo”, a mix between Japan's native Shinto beliefs and Chinese Buddhism. Koike visited numerous temples where their architecture, gardens, and sculptures became his inspiration.
Koike started his first attempt of deconstructionism sculpture by compiling various dismantled found objects, removing their physical meaning, and reforming them into a sculpture. In the recent decade, Koike created most artworks by mixing images from different space and time, creating “fictional ancient artifacts” as if they do not belong to any era of the recorded history. Motifs of divinity, big cats, plants and pineapples repeatedly appears in Koike’s works, such as the tiger paintings of Japan's Edo period — there was no tiger in Japan at that time. Tiger paintings then were imaginary creatures made with reference to chinese paintings, furs brought back and cats. Koike always aims at the state where “different elements coexist in harmony”. He once joked that future scholars from 2000 years later will discover a whole new culture from his buried works.
The artist attempts to present his works as if they were found objects, hence his creations are mostly spontaneous. Black clay and special black glaze are applied to simulate the color of traditional Japanese tea sets. Most of Koike’s sculptures are titled in codes — “BC” stands for “Black Clay”, and numbers are the date finished modeling - Koike avoids any narrative in the work titles, so that one could interpret his work from a more detached perspective purely on the basis of its physical form.
Koike's notable recent shows include Cadet Capela (Paris, 2023), OMURO MUSEUM (Mie, 2021), two-person Shows at Aishonanzuka Gallery with Jordy Kerwick (Hong Kong, 2024), and with Djordje Ozbolt (Hong Kong, 2023), as well as HAGD Contemporary with Henrik Godsk (Aalborg, 2023)
MAYUMI YAMASE
Mayumi Yamase is a Tokyo-based artist whose work captivates through a masterful use of color and organic forms. Her practice seeks a delicate balance in composition, created through the interplay of sharp and gentle tones, varied textures, dynamic shapes, and negative space.
Yamase’s works invite viewers into harmonious visual landscapes where elements of flora, geometry, and abstract anatomy engage in an ongoing dialogue. Across drawings, paintings, collages, and three-dimensional forms, her work carries a quiet yet powerful presence, evoking connections to the vitality of living things. Yamase’s work has been exhibited in London, Singapore, and throughout Japan, and she has collaborated with a number of influential creatives (Japanese Label “Comme des Garcons / 10 years + collaboration, Nike and more…)
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