From May 8 to August 30, 2026, the Museum of Oriental Art in Venice is hosting the exhibition MUSHI 虫. Dragonflies and Other Insects in the Painting of Stéphane Dubé, an exhibition that brings together twenty-seven works by the artist dedicated to the world of insects. The project, curated by Marta Boscolo Marchi, Sachiko Natsume and Giulia Passante, is the result of a collaboration between the Veneto National Museums Regional Directorate - Museum of Oriental Art and Sachiko Natsume Gallery.
The works presented in the exhibition are made in gouache on paper and are organized in three sections that develop different aspects of Dubé’s research. The first section, entitled Dragonflies, relates the artist’s works to some objects in the museum’s collection. In fact, the figure of the dragonfly appears frequently on different types of artifacts from the Japanese tradition preserved in the collections, including military items, netsuke (small clasps used as counterweights for objects hung on the belt), pipe holders, and small pieces of furniture. In such contexts the insect is associated with qualities such as tenacity and fighting spirit. The recurring presence of this figure and the essentiality of its form have suggested to the artist a series of four large compositions in which the repetition of the image generates a rhythmic visual structure that recalls the flight pattern of dragonflies.
A second core of the exhibition is dedicated to moths. Between 2019 and 2022, Stéphane Dubé made a series of images focusing on these nocturnal insects, characterized by a morphology that allows for an essential graphic synthesis. The immobile position of the moths allows their shape to be inscribed within a triangular structure, an element that becomes one of the compositional principles of the series. Alongside these images appear a number of works devoted to so-called “head-eyes,” depictions of insect heads in which the artist focuses attention on the complexity of the surface. In these works gouache is applied with textural and irregular deposits that suggest a fragmented and multiple perception. The moth, an insect associated with the night, is also symbolically associated with the ability to orient oneself in the dark and to perceive beyond what appears visible.
The last part of the exhibition presents a selection of works from the cycle devoted to dead snakes. In Japanese culture, the term 蛇(hebi) for snake is connected to the insect world through the radical 虫. In this symbolic context, the snake is considered an auspicious creature, associated with wisdom, protection and fertility, but also with ideas of rebirth and healing related to the ability to shed skin. The exhibition includes eight paintings belonging to the Dead Snake cycle, consisting of a total of fifty works. Within this series, a progressive stylistic development can be observed, leading from the earliest images, in which the snake appears in motion, to more monumental and compact depictions, to a later phase characterized by a more essential and rarefied form, as if even after death the figure continues to transform.
As part of the initiatives related to the exhibition, an appointment dedicated to sake is also planned. On May 10 at 12 noon, Sachiko Natsume Gallery is organizing a meeting focusing on the history of the drink, its production methods and its organoleptic characteristics. Master Hoshitaro Asada, who makes sake in the Dolomites, will participate in the event. A tasting with a glass offered by the producer is planned at the end of the meeting. The event has a limited number of participants and requires reservations by phone at 041 5241173. The exhibition is sponsored by the Regional Directorate National Museums Veneto - Museum of Oriental Art with the support of Sachiko Natsume Gallery.
Stéphane Dubé was born in 1959. Between 1979 and 1981 he moved to Warsaw to study at the Academy of Fine Arts on a scholarship from the Polish government. Later, between 1989 and 1990, he continued his education at the Kyoto Academy of Fine Arts as a fellow of the Japanese government. Since 2024 the artist has lived in Toyama, not far from the Sea of Japan, in an area characterized by mountains and rice fields.
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| An exhibition in Venice on Stéphane Dubé's painting of insects and snakes |
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