Hiroka Yamashita
02 Nov - 20 Dec 2019
Tanya Leighton is pleased to announce a project with Japanese artist Hiroka Yamashita – marking the first time her work has been exhibited in Europe.
Yamashita’s paintings toe a line between figuration and abstraction, and observation and invention. The figures that dot her compositions are often sketched atop bodies of water, or fields of long grass. The interaction between humans and the natural world is a recurring theme, as Yamashita’s subjects reveal the traditions and methods through which society shapes its environment. There are seafaring groups pushing a dingy past a moonlit ridge, others admire cherry blossoms from behind a bright orange fence or dance beneath falling bougainvillea. A fresh catch of netted fish floats above a sorbet coloured ground.
The inventive compositions in which these interplays unfold do not refer to actual space, but rather a layered assemblage of architecture and manicured gardens, interspersed with abstraction. Occasionally, the ostensible subject of a painting is occluded by looming brushwork – giving the sensation of peering through fog or past branches. In other paintings, the ground on which a scene unfolds is little more than a vague coastline or horizon. This tension between density and oblivion calls attention to the ultimately unpredictable relationship between ourselves and our environment.
Yamashita’s paintings toe a line between figuration and abstraction, and observation and invention. The figures that dot her compositions are often sketched atop bodies of water, or fields of long grass. The interaction between humans and the natural world is a recurring theme, as Yamashita’s subjects reveal the traditions and methods through which society shapes its environment. There are seafaring groups pushing a dingy past a moonlit ridge, others admire cherry blossoms from behind a bright orange fence or dance beneath falling bougainvillea. A fresh catch of netted fish floats above a sorbet coloured ground.
The inventive compositions in which these interplays unfold do not refer to actual space, but rather a layered assemblage of architecture and manicured gardens, interspersed with abstraction. Occasionally, the ostensible subject of a painting is occluded by looming brushwork – giving the sensation of peering through fog or past branches. In other paintings, the ground on which a scene unfolds is little more than a vague coastline or horizon. This tension between density and oblivion calls attention to the ultimately unpredictable relationship between ourselves and our environment.