YU NISHIMURA

Artist bio

projection
June 25 - July 24, 2016
Opening reception: Saturday, June 25, 6-8 pm

Yu Nishimura　away from the river　2016, oil on canvas, 162.0×130 cm

KAYOKOYUKI is pleased to announce the solo exhibition with Yu Nishimura. Yu Nishimura was born in 1982 in Kanagawa, Japan.
Recently, Nishimura presented his work in "FACE 2016: FACE Award Winners -The Way of Paintings 2016" at Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2016, ”Imprisoned, Jailbreak, Imprisoned, Jailbreak -crated by Kazuyuki Takezaki" at KAYOKOYUKI and Komagome SOKO, Tokyo, 2016, ”project N 61" at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, 2015, "Some Like Witty –Daisuke Miyatsu collection” at Gallery EXIT, Hong Kong, 2014, ”Art Kurabiraki Fujiyoshida 2014” at Ono Satoshi Open Studio, Yamanashi, 2014, "Shell Art Award 2013 -Kenjiro Hosaka’s prize“ at The National Art Center, Tokyo, 2013, ”TWS-Emerging 202 Yu Nishimura:The Senery Carried" at TWS Hongo, Tokyo, 2013, “Haluhi Painting Triennale: Artist Series Vol.65 Yu Nishimura” at Kiyosu City Haluhi Art Museum, Aichi, 2010. Lives and works in Kanagawa.

A girl walking through a dense forest, a young man walking on a country street, a person standing in the grass, a small figure at the back of the spacious grassland and seashore; a car running forward or backward, or animals such as dogs and birds—By use of diverse images, Yu Nishimura cuts out a casual moment that does not seem to be important but is imprinted on the depth of his memory and draws it on a picture plane. His paintings, created through overlapping multiple transparent, light colors, share one common worldview as if they form a poetry book.

“Projection,” the exhibition title, contains a double meaning: on the one hand, the artist actively projects images onto a picture plane through the act of painting, but on the other hand, the figures drawn on the picture plane project images on the artist’s mind. As Nishimura describes, “while painting, images begin to appear even beside or behind myself,” images come from the memory of the artist gradually transform towards a final form while surrounding and intertwining with the artist and the picture plane. A significant characteristic of Nishimura’s painting is that it is composed of many layers of elements such as layer of colors and doubly drawn outlines of a human figure. This accumulation of layers indicates the process of image transition which is unpredictable even to the artist.

Anyone who faces Nishimura’s painting, created through delicate use of colors and an uninhibited brushstroke, may recall private, secret scenes from his/her childhood. Also, the viewer may develop an illusion that the humans or animals drawn on the canvas would disappear from the picture plane during the short time when one take their eyes off it. These phenomena may due to the fact that the autonomy of Nishimura’s painting, based on his fraternization with the picture plane during production, actualizes a rich expression that stimulates the viewer’s imagination through creating an intimate, delicate pictorial space by connecting the area between the inside and outside of the painting.