Kosuke Ajiro: Excavation Record I – Sayonara at GR Gallery

 Artist Kosuke Ajiro
 

By MARCARSON October 13th, 2026

You describe the Kingdom of Sally as something you’re discovering rather than inventing. When did a simple drawing start feeling like a place with a life of its own, and how does this idea come through in this chapter presented at GR Gallery?

When I was a child, I spent most of my time playing with dolls by myself.

I would line up the dolls I made myself on a desk and quietly play each character, moving the story forward. Every day, I created my own secret puppet theater. I did this almost every day until I was 18.

But at some point, I felt that if I continued playing like this, the real world might become boring to me. I was also starting to think about finding a job, so I buried the dolls in a nearby embankment and sealed them away.

When I was around 30, I started painting after visiting galleries in New York. As I continued painting, I remembered the doll stories I had sealed away long ago, and I began to want to continue them.

For me, it felt exactly like excavation.

Kosuke Ajiro, Sayonara, 2026, acrylic on canvas, 194 x 162 cm.
 

Sayonara tells the end of this world. What made you want to start there—and are you actually ready to say goodbye?

The Kingdom of Sally is a civilization that has already disappeared. It is said to have existed from the 3rd century BC until the end of the Middle Ages.

There are myths that were passed down through this civilization, and ruins are buried underground that are said to contain images of those myths.

Sayonara is a story about the end of this civilization. In Norse mythology, it is similar to Ragnarok. Part of a ruined mural depicting this story was accidentally discovered in the city where I live. Based on this ruin, I created a reconstruction of the mural on canvas.

Around 1999, the prophecy of Nostradamus became very popular in Japan. I was 19 at the time, and I honestly believed that the world was going to end (laughs). Perhaps that feeling of the end of the world has stayed somewhere inside me. The world is also quite chaotic now, so maybe that feeling is still there in some way.

By painting the end, I feel that something new is beginning. Rather than saying goodbye to the Kingdom of Sally, I feel that I am sensing a new beginning.

Kosuke Ajiro, Renette's Dream, acrylic on canvas, 162 x 130 cm
 

If you showed up in the Kingdom of Sally, would anyone recognize you—or would you have to explain that you made the place? And how do you hope visitors to the exhibition at GR Gallery might find their own way into this world?

When people from our real world enter the Kingdom of Sally, they are usually discovered and eaten. Men in particular are easy to find because, apparently, they can be recognized by their body odor (laughs).

I don't want to be eaten, so I send Reinette, who is like another version of myself, to go there instead. I then paint what she sees and hears.

So even I don't know everything about the Kingdom of Sally. Rather than simply understanding the world through my explanations, I hope visitors can imagine it freely through each painting and find their own way into the world.

Giant serpent, 2026, acrylic on panel, 23 x 18 cm
 

Which of your characters would make the worst roommate? What’s the first thing they’d do to get kicked out?

There is a man called Fool Kosuke who looks very much like me.

He tells ridiculous stories and often makes things up. If I lived with him, I think I would have to listen to his nonsense all the time.

Even when I just hear his voice in my head, I get tired of him (laughs).

This is your first solo exhibition in the United States, presented at GR Gallery. Has anything about the way people in New York have responded to the exhibition surprised you?

Yes. I was surprised by how readily people accepted the world of my work.

I still cannot speak English at all. But even though we could not communicate through language, I felt that I was able to communicate with people through my work.

That was one of the things that made me very happy about this exhibition in New York.

Kosuke Ajiro
Excavation Record I – Sayonara
September 12 – October 24, 2026
GR Gallery, New York, NY