Origin of Desire by Mari Ito

Details

Origin of Desire marks the first solo exhibition in India by Japanese artist Mari Ito, presented by GEEK/ART New Delhi at The Ballroom, Bikaner House from 24 April to 1 May 2026. Bringing together sculptural works alongside large and small-format paintings, the exhibition introduces Ito’s distinctive visual language shaped by her training in Nihonga and her current practice in Barcelona.

Ito’s work unfolds through a surreal, biomorphic world of blooming forms—flowers with human-like faces, swelling organic bodies, and intricate cellular patterns. Rooted in traditional Japanese techniques of layering mineral pigments, sumi ink, and nikawa on washi paper, her practice expands into luminous, dimensional compositions influenced by the Mediterranean.

At its core, Origin of Desire explores desire as a generative and political force. Through motifs that oscillate between the botanical, the human, and the microscopic, Ito constructs a visual universe where emotional, biological, and psychic energies intertwine. Her works challenge normative structures around the body, gender, and reproduction, proposing instead a fluid, multi-directional vitality that resists containment.

Drawing from Japanese surrealism, folkloric animism, and post-war avant-garde thought, Ito’s practice reclaims the decorative and the floral as sites of transformation and resistance. The exhibition presents a richly layered inquiry into interiority, memory, and the unseen forces that shape both individual and collective experience.