The Weight of a Line | 線の重 み
chihiro kabata
2025 August 21 - 31 | Wednesday - Friday ,1PM - 7PM. Saturday - Sunday, 1PM - 6PM.
39 Keppel Rd, #03-10 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore 089065
Opening Reception: August 20 | 5:30PM - 8:30PM | RSVP
Artist Talk: August 23 | 3PM - 4PM | RSVP
Special Event On Art, Process, and Sake: August 28 | 6PM - 8:30PM | RSVP
Live Drawing Session: 24, 30, 31 August 2025 | 3:00PM-5:00PM
This provides a rare opportunity to see her process unfold in real time and engage with the evolving works.
brief
INSTINC is proud to present The Weight of a Line, a solo exhibition by acclaimed Japanese artist Chihiro Kabata.
An MFA graduate from the prestigious Musashino Art University, Kabata has an extensive exhibition history. She first gained recognition through major institutional shows like the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo’s MOT Annual 2011 and the Ueno Royal Museum’s VOCA Exhibition. Her career highlights also include a solo exhibition at the Fuchu Art Museum (2021) and participation in the internationally renowned Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale (2022, 2024). Based in Tokyo and Yokohama, Kabata’s work has been featured in numerous prominent group exhibitions.
This exhibition marks a significant milestone in Kabata’s decade-long collaboration with INSTINC. A two-time participant in our international residency program, her journey with the gallery began with the “Project 6581” exchange in 2014, which culminated in an exhibition at the Japan Creative Centre in Singapore. This solo show is a powerful continuation of that enduring relationship, following her participation in INSTINC’s 20th-anniversary events in 2024.
The exhibition delves into the profound physicality and accumulated energy behind her intricate works, created with the meticulous, repetitive strokes of a simple ballpoint pen. The title, The Weight of a Line, refers not to physical heaviness, but to the conceptual and visual density of her artworks. Each piece is a testament to immense labor and focused intention, where thousands of individual, almost weightless lines coalesce into a singular, powerful entity.
On the surface of the paper, shimmering, deep fields of ink emerge—resembling topographical maps or cosmic phenomena. The resulting artworks are the tangible evidence of her meditative process. The Weight of a Line invites viewers to look beyond the image and feel the resonance of its creation—to appreciate the sheer force of persistence captured in every deliberate mark.
BIO of Artist Chihiro Kabata
Chihiro Kabata is an artist who transcends the boundaries of painting to give form to what cannot be seen, groping her way through the invisible.
Through the accumulation of ballpoint pen lines or the use of reflective materials that fill and transform space, her work evokes a profound world—like the shadow of reality—sensed rather than explicitly shown. Her ballpoint pen drawings, created by layering countless lines in an ongoing motion at close proximity to the surface, combine delicacy with raw intensity. At the same time, they possess a hard-edged structure that reflects a keen awareness of both the viewer and the surrounding space.
In particular, the glossy surfaces produced by layering oil-based ballpoint pen lines offer a distinctive depth—combining tactile strokes with a reflective quality that captures the viewer’s image. These works compellingly reassert the enduring fascination of confronting a painting, both as object and experience.
2024 Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2024 (Niigata, Japan)
2021 Open Studio 81: Chihiro Kabata (Fuchu Art Museum)
2022 The Collection of the DAICHI（Echigo-Tsumari Kiyotsu Soko Museum of Art / Niigata）
2022 Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2022 (Niigata, Japan)
2020 Japanese Art: Strokes Aflame( Fuchu Art Museum/ Tokyo, Japan)
2019 The 37th Ueno Royal Museum Grand Prize Exhibition(Ueno Royal Museum/Tokyo, Japan)
2019 FACE 2019 Sompo Japan Art Award Exhibition(Sompo Japan Museum of Art/Tokyo, Japan)
2015 Measuring: This much, That much, How much?(21_21 design sight/Tokyo, Japan)
2012 VOCA2012 (The Ueno Royal Museum / Tokyo,Japan)
2011 MOT annual 2011- Nearest Faraway(Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo/ Tokyo, Japan)
Download full CV here
Website: https://www.kabatachihiro.com | Instagram: @kabatachihiro
