Aki Yamamoto: Cut

Yamamoto is a painter who is known for her exhibition at “Vision of Contemporary Art (VOCA)”, the exhibition which has opened up a career to young artists creating flat works, in 2002, 2006 and “Domani”, the exhibition for artists who were dispatched overseas from Agency of Cultural Affair to present their outcomes, in 2008. After moving back from the United States in 2006 where she resided as a researcher abroad dispatched from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, she has always been exploring different expression including not only oil paintings but also three-dimensional works made of felts she brought from the United States. Yamamoto cuts off shapes of various objects such as scenery in daily life, images of magazines, light and shadow casted through window, and transforms them into artwork by reconstructing layers of the shapes on canvas. Sometime looks abstract and the other time clear. The way shapes layered and light flickers attracts viewers to the world of her artworks.
Light, shape and color are key elements of Yamamoto’s works. In general, our retinas capture light reflected on object as an image and recognize its shape and color. On the other hand, there is preconceived image in our mind created by our perception that we “knew” the object already. However, when we actually see it, the unfocused image is blurred and its actual appearance would change itself depending on the angle we look from. Moreover, there is no unique color on substance and its color varies a lot according to the way light casts on it. When we remember something, it is possible to overlap actual image we capture with those in our memory. At Yamamoto’s paintings, it may be close to reconstruct such vagueness of sight and cognition, or its flexibility into flat canvas.
This time will be her first exhibition at Art Front Gallery since spring of 2010. Focusing on her representative works of oil paintings, we present artworks created by consciously choosing shape of shadow of certain nameless object which will be entrusted to viewers’ imagination. It is regrettable that both creators and viewers seem to tend to appreciate “art” and lack imagination or playful attitude when facing the work categorized to the established genre of “painting”. Yamamoto’s artworks may originally fully present such starting point of enjoying lost pleasure of paintings.

Toshio Kondo, Art Front Gallery