Shigeo Otake /
Agoraphilia /
Jul 10 – Aug 29, 2026 /
Opening: Thursday, Jul 9, 5pm – 8pm /
Artist tour: 5pm /
White Cube Hong Kong
50 Connaught Road, Central Hong Kong
+852 2592 2000
Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 7pm
White Cube presents new fresco and tempera paintings by Shigeo Otake (b.1955, Kobe, Japan) in the artist’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong.
Informed by his interest in Early Italian Renaissance techniques, Otake’s painting practice spans more than four decades. In 1985, a chance encounter with a giant wild mushroom in Kyoto, Japan, sparked his interest in mycology; since the late 1980s he has pursued meticulous studies of parasites and the transformative morphology of Cordyceps, a genus of parasitic fungi.
Titled Agoraphilia the exhibition centres on the agora, an Ancient Greek word meaning ‘assembly’, as both a site of action and a conceptual framework. Otake takes this as a departure point for his marketplace paintings, in which he engages with systems of circulation, the logic of consumerism and the dynamics of reciprocity.
In these new paintings, densely populated scenes of anthropomorphic figures and botanical forms appear to take part in collective assembly, drawing parallels between organic growth and public life. By way of the marketplace and its many textures, Otake interrogates the cadence of an everyday life structured by movement and exchange.
The exhibition coincides with a two-part survey of the artist’s work, organised by Consortium Museum in Dijon, France. In Venice, coinciding with the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, ‘Chapter I: ‘Nel mezzo del cammin’ at Palazzo Zon continues until 28 June 2026. Chapter II: ‘Per una selva oscura’ opens at Consortium Museum on 3 July 2026 as part of the L’Almanach 26 biennial.
