Ehrlich Steinberg is pleased to present the solo exhibition Million Bubbles by Tokyo-based Japanese artist Emi Mizukami. The exhibition comprises a new series of paintings that form a circular narrative centered around various motifs and references, including the ancient Roman god Mercurius, the fictional world of Jonathon Swift’s 1726 Gulliver’s Travels and Mexican writer Juan Rulfo’s 1955 novel Pedro Páramo. Mercurius, featuring in various forms throughout each painting, acts as a key symbol of opposites and duality in the exhibition, his alchemic namesake ‘mercury’ simultaneously existing as both solid metal and liquid. Within the paintings, motifs and characters overlap in disjointed chronological order, crystallizing and dissolving the narrative cycle.

At once allegorical and abstruse, Mizukami’s work develops a dense visual and material language, engaging with ancient and contemporary modes of representation. Building up the painting’s surface through numerous layers of imagery and sand paste–thickened paint, recurring depictions become simultaneously concretized and obscured as they emerge or submerge. Although earlier images now lie hidden underneath the surface, Mizukami does not distinguish any hierarchy between these visible and invisible layers. Instead, the hidden and exposed - described by the artist as the “disappearing” and “remaining” images - are seen as mutually developing the painting’s pictorial, temporal and structural plane. These sealed, under-layers resurface on the backs of the paintings as loosely drawn and painted fragments from the artist’s memory. In this way, the work’s representational structure and allegorical timeline is further complicated as supposed origin images and initial sketches are reconstituted as final marks and remembered traces.

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Emi Mizukami (b. 1992, Tokyo, JP) lives and works in Tokyo, JP. Mizukami received her BFA in Oil Painting from Tama Art University, Tokyo in 2017. Previous solo exhibitions include Pale Phantom at King’s Leap, NY (2024); And so it goes at Larder, Los Angeles, CA (2023), So it goes at 4649, Tokyo, JP (2022); Catharsis Bed at CADAN YURAKUCHO, Tokyo, JP (2022) and Dear sentiment at TOKAS Hongo, Tokyo, JP (2021).


Installation view. Million Bubbles by Emi Mizukami, 2024.


Installation view. Million Bubbles by Emi Mizukami, 2024.


Emi Mizukami, The sun is steel blazing, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand on linen, 57.5 x 44.5 in. (146 x 113 cm).


Emi Mizukami, The sun is steel blazing, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand on linen, 57.5 x 44.5 in. (146 x 113 cm).


Detail. Emi Mizukami, The sun is steel blazing, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand on linen, 57.5 x 44.5 in. (146 x 113 cm).


Back. Emi Mizukami, The sun is steel blazing, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand on linen, 57.5 x 44.5 in. (146 x 113 cm).


Detail. Emi Mizukami, The sun is steel blazing, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand on linen, 57.5 x 44.5 in. (146 x 113 cm).


Installation view. Million Bubbles by Emi Mizukami, 2024.


Emi Mizukami, fleeting dream, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 14 x 8.75 in. (35 x 22 cm).


Detail. Emi Mizukami, fleeting dream, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 14 x 8.75 in. (35 x 22 cm).


Back. Emi Mizukami, fleeting dream, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 14 x 8.75 in. (35 x 22 cm).


Detail. Emi Mizukami, fleeting dream, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 14 x 8.75 in. (35 x 22 cm).


Emi Mizukami, way (to get somewhere), 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand on linen, 51.5 x 63.5 in. (131 x 161 cm).


Emi Mizukami, way (to get somewhere), 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand on linen, 51.5 x 63.5 in. (131 x 161 cm).


Detail. Emi Mizukami, way (to get somewhere), 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand on linen, 51.5 x 63.5 in. (131 x 161 cm).


Back. Emi Mizukami, way (to get somewhere), 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand on linen, 51.5 x 63.5 in. (131 x 161 cm).


Installation view. Million Bubbles by Emi Mizukami, 2024.


Emi Mizukami, Million Bubbles, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 16 x 11 in. (41 x 28 cm).


Emi Mizukami, Million Bubbles, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 16 x 11 in. (41 x 28 cm).


Back. Emi Mizukami, Million Bubbles, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 16 x 11 in. (41 x 28 cm).


Installation view. Million Bubbles by Emi Mizukami, 2024.


Emi Mizukami, Out of the house and into the woods, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 11.5 x 8 in. (29 x 20 cm).


Detail. Emi Mizukami, Out of the house and into the woods, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 11.5 x 8 in. (29 x 20 cm).


Back. Emi Mizukami, Out of the house and into the woods, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 11.5 x 8 in. (29 x 20 cm).


Emi Mizukami, Throw It Far Far away, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 13.5 x 9 in. (34 x 22.5 cm). .


Detail. Emi Mizukami, Throw It Far Far away, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 13.5 x 9 in. (34 x 22.5 cm).


Back. Emi Mizukami, Throw It Far Far away, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 13.5 x 9 in. (34 x 22.5 cm).


Emi Mizukami, Strangers, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 16.5 x 11 in. (42 x 28 cm).


Detail. Emi Mizukami, Strangers, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 16.5 x 11 in. (42 x 28 cm).


Back. Emi Mizukami, Strangers, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 16.5 x 11 in. (42 x 28 cm).


Detail. Emi Mizukami, Strangers, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 16.5 x 11 in. (42 x 28 cm).


Installation view. Million Bubbles by Emi Mizukami, 2024.


Installation view. Million Bubbles by Emi Mizukami, 2024.


Emi Mizukami, Search for the jade ball in the spiral space, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 29 x 20 in. (74 x 51 cm).


Detail. Emi Mizukami, Search for the jade ball in the spiral space, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 29 x 20 in. (74 x 51 cm).


Back. Emi Mizukami, Search for the jade ball in the spiral space, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 29 x 20 in. (74 x 51 cm).


Emi Mizukami, way (to get somewhere) II, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 10.5 x 6.25 in. (27 x 16 cm).


Back. Emi Mizukami, way (to get somewhere) II, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 10.5 x 6.25 in. (27 x 16 cm).


Emi Mizukami, One day, you became a horse, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 16 x 11 in. (41 x 28 cm).


Back. Emi Mizukami, One day, you became a horse, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 16 x 11 in. (41 x 28 cm).


Emi Mizukami, beginning-to-end drawings, 2024. Pencil on paper, 11.5 x 8.25 in. (29 x 21 cm).


Emi Mizukami, beginning-to-end drawings, 2024. Pencil on paper, 11.5 x 8.25 in. (29 x 21 cm).


Installation view. Million Bubbles by Emi Mizukami, 2024.


Emi Mizukami, The foggy town of reunion, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 46.5 x 36.25 in. (118 x 92 cm).


Emi Mizukami, The foggy town of reunion, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 46.5 x 36.25 in. (118 x 92 cm).


Detail. Emi Mizukami, The foggy town of reunion, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 46.5 x 36.25 in. (118 x 92 cm).


Back. Emi Mizukami, The foggy town of reunion, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 46.5 x 36.25 in. (118 x 92 cm).


Emi Mizukami, Second, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 11.5 x 9.25 in. (29 x 23.5 cm).


Detail. Emi Mizukami, Second, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 11.5 x 9.25 in. (29 x 23.5 cm).


Back. Emi Mizukami, Second, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 11.5 x 9.25 in. (29 x 23.5 cm).


Detail. Emi Mizukami, Second, 2024. Acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, pastel, sand paste, desert sand, linen on panel, 11.5 x 9.25 in. (29 x 23.5 cm).

Photos: Evan Walsh