JUNKFOODGIRL® Ryo Murakami | May 17 – 24, 2026
Reception: Thursday, May 21, 2026, 6 – 8pm
Exhibition: May 17 – 24, 2026 | 12 – 6pm
In Japan, there is a culture that often treats self-restrain as a virtue.
You are expected to hold back from eating what you truly want, to diet, and to appear as slim as possible. You are expected to suppress what you really want to do, keep pace with everyone around you, and avoid doing anything too unconventional.
Of course, modesty is also one of the beautiful aspects of Japanese culture.
But at the same time, I began to wonder whether this idea that “endurance is a virtue” has helped create a closed, suffocating society where people are forced to hide their true feelings and desires.
That question became the starting point for this artwork. In this series, desire is represented through junk food. To bite into junk food is to bite into one’s own desire.
This artwork is an affirmation of desire, not a rejection of it. What is truly ugly is not having desire. What is ugly is killing your own emotions and pretending your true self does not exist.
We can live with our desires.
We can eat what we want to eat.
We can do what we truly want to do.