Origin of Desire: Japanese Artist Mari Ito’s First Solo Exhibition in India

Origin of Desire, the first solo exhibition in India by Japanese artist Mari Ito, presented by GEEK/ART New Delhi, on view from 24 April to 1t  May 2026 at The Ballroom, Bikaner House, New Delhi.

Currently based in Barcelona, Ito presents a body of sculptural works alongside large and small-format paintings that unfold a world of biological extravagance, surreal flowers with human-like faces, swelling organic forms, and luminous colour fields. Rooted in traditional Nihonga techniques, her practice involves layering pigments, sumi ink, and nikawa on Oguni washi, preserving the rigour of Japanese craftsmanship while expanding its visual language.

Exhibition Details:

Title: Origin of Desire
Participating artist: Mari Ito
Dates: 24 April – 1 May 2026
Timings: 11:00 am – 6:30 pm
Venue: The Ballroom, Bikaner House, New Delhi

Mari Ito’s work stages desire as a primal force, unfolding through whimsical compositions of seeds, pods, and cellular rhythms. Her iconography insists on forms that exceed boundaries, proposing desire as a hybrid, multi-directional vitality that mutates, sprouts, and leaks. Her biomorphic world challenges narratives of restraint and obedience, bringing forth an interiority shaped by the erotic, the psychic, and the cellular.

Her practice echoes Japanese surrealism and folkloric animism while engaging with post-war avant-garde tendencies to rupture the boundaries of the body. Distinctly feminist in its approach, her work reclaims the floral and the decorative as sites of mutation and political charge.

This exhibition also marks an important moment for GEEK/ART, as it launches its independent programming in India, bringing new artistic voices from across Asia into conversation with local audiences.