Ran Natsume

Ran Natsume (夏目らん) is a painter whose work moves between character illustration and fine art. She began drawing as a child with the ambition of becoming a manga artist, producing fan art and dōjinshi with Copic markers and coloured pencils before teaching herself digital painting on a tablet. In recent years her practice has shifted towards traditional oil painting, a medium she says suits her slow blending of tones and feels close to the way she works digitally.

Natsume's subject is the inner life. Her stated aim is to make visible the pain that everyone carries but seldom shows, and the inner states that cannot be put into words. Her paintings, often marked by a dark, gothic and punk sensibility, show wounds and expressions of sadness, yet the curator Yasumasa Yonehara has described them as holding despair and hope at once. She leaves her images open, preferring that viewers find their own reading rather than follow a fixed narrative.

Natsume works with +DA.YO.NE., the brand and gallery founded by Yonehara, where she has held a solo exhibition each year since 2024, and in 2024 she presented the solo show NARCISSISM at 9DAYS GALLERY in Shibuya, Tokyo. Ran Natsume's work is presented in Europe by Tokiol.

Selected exhibitions

2026 Mercury, solo exhibition, +DA.YO.NE.GALLERY, Hankyu Men's Tokyo, Tokyo
2025 FOCUS, solo exhibition, +DA.YO.NE.GALLERY, Hankyu Men's Tokyo, Tokyo
2024 NARCISSISM, solo exhibition, 9DAYS GALLERY, Shibuya Modi, Tokyo
2024 empty, solo exhibition, +DA.YO.NE.GALLERY, Hankyu Men's Tokyo, Tokyo
2021 CrypTOKYO III, group exhibition, TRUNK(HOTEL), Tokyo