On April 15, Japanese sculptor Shigeo Toya died of pneumonia in Tokyo at the age of 78. Known for his rigorous conceptual approach, he spent five decades probing what the medium could be beyond a predominantly Western framework of representation.

Born in 1947 in Nagano Prefecture, Toya grew up in a rural landscape of mountains and forests that left a lasting imprint on his practice. He completed both his undergraduate and graduate studies at Aichi University of the Arts by 1975, and arrived early on at the realization that sculpture exists in relation to the gaze—an act that renders space itself sensible, or “visible,” in his words. From this premise, Toya moved beyond Western notions of representation, as well as the post-minimalist and Mono-ha paradigms that had dominated the Japanese art scene from late 1960s to the ’70s. Instead of emphasizing raw materiality, he oriented his practice toward what he termed the “body of the gaze.” An early example is Bamboo Grove II (1975), in which Toya materializes the trajectories of his gaze by stretching ropes across bamboo trees. 

In 1984, Toya started his Woods series, forest-like clusters of chainsaw-carved timber, an edition of which was exhibited in the Japanese Pavilion at the 43rd Venice Biennale in 1988. The sculptures draw surrounding space into their volume, their rough, charred recesses blurring the boundary between solid and void. Toya’s process, informed by visits to archaeological sites such as Pompeii, can be likened to excavation. Immersive and primeval, the installations stage encounters that test the weight of memory, the pull between mass and dispersion, and the entanglement between human and natural histories. 

Extending this approach, Toya developed his Minimal Baroque series in the early 2000s, combining the structural simplicity of wood stakes with intricate, web-like carvings reminiscent of fossils. Until his passing, Toya continued to produce work in his studio in Saitama, north of Tokyo. He was a professor emeritus of sculpture at Musashino Art University and was bestowed the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon (2009) and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette (2025) by the emperor of Japan.  

Shugo Satani, founder of Tokyo’s ShugoArts and Toya’s friend and collaborator for 40 years, observed in a tribute: “While tracing the very roots of artistic expression, Toya persistently questioned what sculpture could be in the present, continually reflecting on the nature of the world and human existence, and striving to embody these inquiries in his work. His stance will remain an irreplaceable guide for us.”

Toya’s final solo exhibition, "Body of the Gaze: Semi-Sculpture,” was held at ShugoArts from October 18 to November 22, 2025.

Yuqian Fan is an editorial assistant at ArtAsiaPacific.