With the opening of its flagship store in February 2025, MADISONBLUE launched a new initiative, MB ART SALON, presenting works from the art collection of Mariko Nakayama and Susumu Jinushi since the grand opening. Building on this initiative, MADISONBLUE now presents its inaugural exhibition, “ZERO: A Story Beginning with White.” White is a color that symbolizes beginnings. Returning to zero, what colors will we layer from here? This theme was chosen to mark the beginning of a new chapter for MADISONBLUE. With the cooperation of Yumiko Chiba Associates, the exhibition presents works by Yoko Sawai, alongside Norio Imai, Kazuyo Kinoshita, and Jiro Takamatsu. Each of these four artists fundamentally reconsidered the nature of material and existence itself, exploring the possibilities inherent in “white = nothingness = zero” through avant-garde practices. MADISONBLUE, too, continues to evolve fashion beyond the idea of a mere “object,” approaching it as a form of expression that conveys spirit and story. Beginning from “zero = white,” this story resonates deeply with the philosophy of MADISONBLUE and marks the opening of a new chapter.

Yoko Sawai

Born 1949, Mie, Japan

A leading figure in the Japanese avant-garde art of the 1970s. Sawai created works by cutting into paper almost to the point of breaking through its surface, then using strokes of pastel to bring “invisible lines” into view. While allowing an element of chance to remain within her meticulous compositions, she sought to explore the “conditions under which a work can exist” without relying on sensation or intuition. Her practice reveals a point of intersection between the logic of Western Minimal and Conceptual Art and the Japanese sensibility of yohaku—the space intentionally left empty.

Line-Work / c. 1977
Cutter knife line, Pastel, Kent paper
49.9 x 50 cm / Unique
©Yoko Sawai, Courtesy of Yumiko Chiba Associates

Norio Imai

Born 1946, Osaka, Japan

In his “white relief works,” Imai blurred the boundary between two and three dimensions by creating protrusions and openings in fabric and canvas. As light and shadow, interior and exterior shift and emerge, these works use white—a color approaching the absence of color—to bring renewed focus to form and contour themselves. Throughout his practice, Imai continued to pursue fundamental questions such as: “What does it mean to see?” “Where are the limits of space?” and “What possibilities exist in the absence of color?”

Ceremony of White, 80 Degrees
1967/2013
Acrylic, Cotton cloth, Plastic mold
80 x 131 x 17.8 cm / Unique
©Norio Imai, Courtesy of Yumiko Chiba Associates

Kazuyo Kinoshita

1939–1994, Hyogo, Japan

By drawing lines directly onto photographic paper, Kinoshita layered photographic images with traces of the hand, exploring the relationship between time, image, and support. In the work presented in this exhibition, lines drawn in felt-tip pen are added to a photograph of folded paper, transforming the white image into something entirely new. Within this seemingly simple method lies a profound inquiry into the nature of seeing and existence.

Ph ’80-16 / 1980
felt pen on photographic paper
51.9 x 82.1 cm/ Unique
©The Estate of Kazuyo Kinoshita, Courtesy of Yumiko Chiba Associates

Jiro Takamatsu

1936–1998, Tokyo, Japan

Oneness of Paper is part of Takamatsu’s “Oneness” series. Through physical acts such as crushing and tearing paper, he strips it of its original function and presents it instead as material in itself. Its weight remains unchanged while only its form and volume are transformed, quietly unsettling our habitual ways of perceiving objects. In an increasingly fragmented world, the work also leaves a lingering sense of a gentle question: what does it mean to become one?

Oneness of Paper
1971/ Paper on panel
45.5 x 32.8 cm / Unique
©The Estate of Jiro Takamatsu, Courtesy of Yumiko Chiba Associates - Tokyo,
Pace Gallery - New York and Stephen Friedman Gallery - London