In an era saturated with digital noise and the constant circulation of information, JPS Gallery Hong Kong presents “FILTER: Reconstructing the Unseen,” the first overseas solo exhibition by emerging Japanese artist Marino Funahashi. Rooted in her ongoing exploration of memory, time, and the natural world, Marino’s paintings turn the quiet, often solitary act of remembering into an immersive, sensory experience.
Filtration and the Reconstruction of the Unseen
At the heart of this evocative exhibition is the idea of filtration—the subtle reconstruction of experiences and impressions that have slipped from view. Drawing on her interest in how lived experiences are sifted, edited, and reshaped over time, Marino creates paintings that function as both quiet meditations and dynamic visual essays on the ambiguities of memory. Rather than depicting nature directly, she seeks to restore a more primal, “natural state” of perception, where sensations are felt before they are named. Memory appears not as a single, frozen scene but as a shimmering accumulation of overlapping time.
Where Plants, Light, and Paint Conspire
Raised by a painter father in an environment deeply connected to nature, Marino brings an instinctive, organic sensibility to her practice. Her studio—dense with living plants—functions almost like a small ecosystem, where light, air, and seasonal shifts quietly tune her attention. This sensitivity extends to the canvas, where her process becomes a sustained dialogue with the surface. Layer upon layer, she weaves colour and texture into compositions in which the canvas is not a passive ground but an active counterpart. Pigments, marks, and materials gather and respond to one another, echoing the way memories layer, blur, and reorganise themselves over time.
Through the Rain–Blurred Glass: Windows of Remembering
Among the standout works created specifically for this exhibition, the RAIN–Window series anchors the presentation. Here, rain becomes both a motif and a metaphor for the passage of time. Recognising water as a force that sustains plants and humans alike, Marino translates the mutability of rainfall—its shifting density, glimmering reflections, muffled sounds, and slow diffusion—into her paintings. By applying surface treatments that evoke the cool tactility and blur of glass, she stages encounters with the everyday experience of looking through a rain‑streaked window. The works hover between abstraction and suggestion, holding just enough trace of reality to feel uncannily familiar while remaining resolutely atmospheric.
Where Memory Meets the Eye
Rather than delivering fixed narratives, Marino invites viewers to encounter her works as sites of personal recall. Colours, forms, and textures appear as presences that are felt before they are fully understood, allowing each person to discover their own inner resonances. She believes that certain kinds of introspection do not arise solely from the paintings but from the charged space between the viewer and the painted surface. “I hope that the fleeting moments depicted in the works will remain with visitors as something small yet certain,” she notes. “FILTER: Reconstructing the Unseen” offers an intimate experience in which the residue of memory is quietly distilled into something unexpectedly and enduringly tangible.
