Japanese Artist Mari Ito on Desire, Nihonga, and What It Means to Show in India for the First Time

Mari Ito paints desire the way a biologist might document a specimen: with precision, patience, and a refusal to look away. Based in Barcelona, the fJapanese artist works in Nihonga, one of the most materially exacting traditions in painting. The Japanese painting style involves layering mineral pigments, sumi ink, and nikawa on Oguni washi to produce compositions that pulse with seeds, pods, cellular rhythms, and surreal flowers with human-like faces. The results are simultaneously beautiful and unsettling, which is precisely the point.

Origin of Desire, her first solo exhibition in India, is presented by GEEK/ART New Delhi at The Ballroom, Bikaner House, and runs until May 1. The show brings together sculptural works alongside large and small-format paintings, marking both the artist's debut in the country and the independent programming launch of GEEK/ART in India. Robb Report India speaks to Ito about the slowness of Nihonga, the politics of the floral, and what a new audience reveals about your own work.

Robb Report: Origin of Desire is a bold, almost philosophical claim. Do you see desire as something that can be traced to a single origin, or is the title itself a contradiction you are working through?

Mari Ito: I am not sure whether desire can be traced back to a single origin. The title of my exhibition, Origin of Desire, is both a core concept of my practice and a question that I continue to explore through making my work.

RRI: Nihonga is one of the most materially demanding traditions in painting, with nikawa, mineral pigments, and Oguni washi. What does that slowness and material specificity allow you to do that no other medium could?

Mari Ito: When fixing pigments, nikawa (a traditional japanese animal glue) allows them to adhere without overly coating their surface, unlike acrylic or oil. Because of this, the texture of the pigments can remain intact on the washi. I am drawn to this quality, which is why I have continued working with Nihonga materials. I believe the difference can be felt when the work is seen in person, not just on a screen. For me, it is important that original works are experienced with the naked eye.

RRI: Your work draws on seeds, pods, and cellular forms, the vocabulary of biological life before it becomes legible. How do you navigate the space between the sensual and the scientific in your visual language?

Mari Ito: We are all well aware of the fact that cells exist here. Yet, we cannot see them with the naked eye. I am interested in imagining how such invisible but existing things move or behave. Perhaps those kinds of imaginings eventually appear in my work as organic and sensory forms.

RR: The floral and the decorative have historically been used to diminish women's art. You seem to weaponise those very tropes, making them strange, excessive, almost threatening. Was that a conscious decision?

Mari Ito: It was not a conscious decision at all. I have been painting similarly since my twenties. By continuing to paint, this style gradually formed, and over time, it naturally became central to my practice.

RR: Your work is rooted in a deeply Japanese technique, yet you live in Barcelona and are now showing in India for the first time. How does geographical displacement shape what you make?

Mari Ito: I feel that my current style has been shaped and transformed by the environment of Barcelona. Experiencing India for the first time has given me many new stimuli, and perhaps these will begin to appear in my work in ways I am not yet aware of. Encountering new audiences and hearing their responses has also led me to notice things about my own work that I had not before.

RR: This exhibition presents sculptural works alongside your paintings. What does three-dimensionality let you say about desire and the body that a flat surface cannot?

Mari Ito: Sculptural work allows the viewer to experience the world more physically and directly. At the same time, in actually making sculptures, I feel the difficulty of working in three dimensions. The freedom I have in painting is more limited, and I have to consider gravity.

RR: What would you want someone standing in The Ballroom at Bikaner House to feel or question as they leave?

Mari Ito: I always hope that viewers can experience the work freely. I would be happy if each person could enjoy it in their own way and through their own sensibility.