As part of the solo exhibition “#copycat” by Kenta Cobayashi currently on view at WAITINGROOM, we are pleased to host a special talk event featuring artists Kenta Cobayashi and Yuma Kishi. This talk also serves as the closing event of the exhibition. Whether you’ve already visited or are yet to see the show, we warmly invite you to join this opportunity for deeper engagement.
Cobayashi has long explored photography not as a medium of “documentation,” but as a site of “generation”—layering painterly techniques and digital manipulations onto photographic images. In “#copycat,” he enters a new phase by collaborating with generative AI for the first time, further expanding his photographic expression. Kishi, on the other hand, engages in collaborations with custom-designed AI systems, delving into co-creation with non-human intelligence while critically examining existing institutional and structural frameworks. His work investigates the influence of generative AI from within the contexts of culture and art.
This talk will explore the complex intersections of photography, AI, and media through the lens of the liminal space between reality and unreality. Beyond the creative potentials of AI, the conversation will also touch on the circulation of images in the age of social media and the evolving intimacy between humans and artificial intelligence, ultimately reexamining the contours of the ever-generating “us.”
[Current Exhibition Closing Event]
Kenta Cobayashi × Yuma Kishi Talk “Human and AI — Intelligence in the In-Between”
Date & Time: Saturday, October 11, 2025, from 14:00
Venue: WAITINGROOM
*Free admission, no reservation required
*Beverages provided
Artist Profiles
Kenta Cobayashi
https://www.kentacobayashi.com
Born in 1992 in Kanagawa, Japan. Completed his BFA in Painting at Tokyo Zokei University in 2016, and currently based in Tokyo and Shonan area. He grew up in the GUI environment of the 1990s, interacting with the family Macintosh and software such as Purikura photo booths and KID PIX, and describes himself as “GUI native.” Through photography and digital editing, he has pursued the question, “What does it mean to capture the truth?” His signature #smudge series employs Photoshop’s smudge tool to stretch photographic pixels, establishing “the act of editing itself” as a form of visual expression. This approach has expanded into a variety of media―including computer graphics, sculpture, video, and installation―through which Cobayashi investigates the fluidity of memory in urban imagery and the digital environment.
Recent solo exhibitions include “#copycat” (2025, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo), “EDGE” (2022, agnès b. galerie boutique, Tokyo), “THE PAST EXISTS” (2022, Mitsukoshi Contemporary Gallery, Tokyo), “Live in Fluctuations” (2020, Little Big Man Gallery, Los Angeles, America). Recent group exhibitions include Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris, France), Fondazione Prada Milan Osservatorio (Milano, Italy), ART TOWER MITO (Mito, Japan), Boogie Woogie Art Museum (Ulsan, Korea). In 2019, Cobayashi also created campaign visuals for fashion brands such as Dunhill and Louis Vuitton. In recent years, he has incorporated AI-generated imagery into his practice, developing a series that positions AI and cats―both entities that elude human control―as “other species that gaze back at humanity.” By traversing the boundary between photography’s roles as record and as creation, he continues to question the fluid nature of images and the condition of human existence in the contemporary era.
Image: tokyo debris and flowers with cat (Vary Subtle), 2025, inkjet print mounted with acrylic, steel, 500 × 335 × 45 mm, Ed.1/4
Yuma Kishi
https://obake2ai.notion.site/mainpage
Born in 1993. Graduated from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University; completed a master’s degree at the Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo (Department of Electrical Engineering), and another master’s degree at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts (Department of Intermedia Art). Currently based in Tokyo, Japan. Kishi reinterpretes AI not as a “tool,” but as an “Alien Intelligence” and explores new possibilities for expression that emerges from the symbiotic relationship between humans and AI. Incorporating his in-house–developed AI model, “MaryGPT,” into both production and exhibition design, he reinterpretes art-historical motifs and cultural codes through a cross-disciplinary practice that spans painting, sculpture, and installation.
Recent solo exhibitions include “Oracle Womb” (2025, √K Contemporary, Tokyo) and “The Frankenstein Papers” (2023, DIESEL ART GALLERY, Tokyo). Recent group exhibitions include “DXP2” (2024, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Ishikawa) and “Beast (Chapter 2 / BEAUTIFUL DAYDREAM)” (2024, Maruka Building, Tokyo). He has received numerous awards, including selection as a finalist for the CAF Award 2023 and recognition in the ATAMI ART GRANT 2022. In addition to collaborations with fashion brands and the music scene, he published the book “Michi tono sozo” (2025). Standing at the intersection of technology and embodiment, he continues to explore and redefine the evolving relationship between art and AI.
Image: Organs, 2025, real-time generated video, real-time generated myth, paper screen, fog, plaster, epoxy resin, size variable
