WAITINGROOM will participate in “ART WARSAW VILLA RÓŻ 2026”, held in Warsaw, Poland from Thursday, May 21 to Sunday, May 24, with a solo presentation by Rikako Kawauchi. Based on her interest in food, Kawauchi explores the ambiguities in the interrelationship between body and mind, and between self and other. She takes as motifs the presence and absence of the self and others that emerge in various forms of communication such as eating, conversation, and sex. Her practice spans a wide range of media—including drawing, painting, wire, resin, neon, and marble—while consistently placing “line” at the core of expression. Through her practice, she describes her attempt as “capturing elusive bodies and invisible movements of thought within lines.” At the presentation of ART WARSAW VILLA RÓŻ 2026, we will exhibit a total of 11 works: 7 paintings, 3 drawings, and 1 stone piece.
Public Days
Thursday, May 21, 4-7pm
Friday, May 22, 12-7pm
Saturday, May 23, 12-7pm
Sunday, May 24, 12-7pm
VIP Preview
Wednesday, May 20, 6-10pm
Venue
Villa Róż, Aleja Róż 1 (Villa Róż, Aleja Róż 1, 00-556, Warsaw, Poland)
*The WAITINGROOM booth is located on the second floor of the venue.
More info: https://www.artwarsaw.com
Rikako Kawauchi
Left: Drink, 2025, oil on canvas, 273 × 220 mm
Center: Land of the Snake, 2026, oil on canvas, 530 × 455 mm
Right: In the Desert, 2025, oil on canvas, 530 × 455 mm
Born in Tokyo in 1990. She completed her graduate studies at Tama Art University, Graduate School of Art and Design, Department of Painting, in 2017.
Recent major exhibitions include Rikako Kawauchi x Edward Dwurnik “THE HEAD” (2026, Edward Dwurnik Foundation, Warsaw, Poland), solo exhibition “The Blade of the Forest Within” (2026, Gana Art Hannam / Gana Art Namsan, Seoul, Korea), solo exhibition “Humans and Tigers” (2025, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan), solo exhibition “The shape of water hardens into stone.” (2025, Kurobe City Art Museum, Toyama), solo exhibition “Inner Vector: 11, 72, 2154” (2025, Beyond Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan), group exhibition “5th Anniversary Exhibition Plastic Utopia: Our New Ecosystem” (2025, Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, Aomori), solo exhibition “Paintings & Drawings – Food, animals, organs, plants, bodies, etc, everything outside me is everywhere in the air. I breathe them in, I breathe them out.” (2024, Van der Grinten Galerie, Cologne, Germany), solo exhibition “Under the sun” (2024, agnès b. Galerie Boutique, Tokyo), group exhibition “A Personal View of Japanese Contemporary Art: Takahashi Ryutaro Collection” (2024, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo), solo exhibition “Even the pigments in paints were once stones” (2023, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo), solo exhibition “The Voice of the Soul” (2023, ERA GALLERY, Milan), group exhibitions “Body, Love, Gender” (2023, Gana Art Center, Seoul, Korea), group exhibition “WORLDS IN BALANCE: ART IN JAPAN FROM THE POSTWAR TO THE PRESENT” (2023, Okura Museum of Art, Tokyo), and group exhibition “10th Anniversary Exhibition: New Horizon—From History to the Future” (2023, Arts Maebashi, Gunma). She also received the Kenjiro Hosaka Prize at the 1st CAF Award (2014), the SHISEIDO ART EGG Prize at SHISEIDO ART EGG (2015), the Yuki Terase Prize at the TERRADA ART AWARD 2021, and the Grand Prize (VOCA Prize) at VOCA 2022: The Vision of Contemporary Art—New Perspectives in Painting (2022).
Left: both hands, 2023, watercolor and pencil on paper, 158 × 226 mm
Right: Alike, 2025, stone, 80 × 170 × h135 mm
Duration : 5/22 (Fri) – 7/31 (Fri), 2026
Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 11am-6pm, or on appointment.
Venue: Edward Dwurnik Foundation (l. Nałęczowska 25, 02-922 Warszawa, Poland)
More info: https://dwurnik.pl/the-head-nowa-wystawa-w-fundacji-edwarda-dwurnika/
As part of the VIP program of “ART WARSAW VILLA RÓŻ 2026,” this exhibition presents works by Edward Dwurnik, a major figure in the history of late 20th-century Polish art, alongside those of Rikako Kawauchi. Although the two artists belong to different generations and cultural contexts, their practices deeply resonate through their shared exploration of human emotion and existence via the body.
While Kawauchi’s solo presentation at “ART WARSAW VILLA RÓŻ 2026” focuses on animals and mythological worlds, this exhibition, “THE HEAD,” turns its attention toward body, organs, and the human figure. Recurrently appearing throughout both artists’ works, the image of the head functions at times as a symbol of thought and emotion, and at others as a reflection of history and society.
Through the dialogue between their works, categories and boundaries that often divide people—such as gender, language, geographical distance, tradition, culture, and time—gradually lose their meaning. We invite you to experience the rich visual conversation that emerges through the intersection of these two distinct artistic practices.
