This winter, imura gallery will present a solo exhibition by Yoshimi Miyamoto.
Miyamoto works predominantly in watercolor, creating black-and-white monochrome paintings that explore the theme of light. For each painting, she blends together many different colors to create her own black, which she uses together with white paint, taking advantage of the manner in which the paints run (nijimi), and adding layer after layer. She is a highly accomplished painter, being awarded the Gotoh Cultural Award for best new talent in 2014, and taking part in the group exhibition Watercolor: The Charm of Mizue—From Meiji to Today presented in Hokkaido, Aichi, and Nara in 2017.
This exhibition at imura gallery was first presented in Tokyo in November 2021. It comprises six works by the artist in total, including additional new works. The expression of light based on white and her carefully produced black paint produces a vigor like that seen in the life cycles of plants. The geranium motifs take over the space, resulting in a highly satisfying exhibition.
－Artist Statement
In the spring of 2019, I visited the Galería Marlborough in Madrid to be shown some of the work of Antonio López García. In my attempts to capture the characteristics of light, I had eliminated color information to produce monochrome paintings, questioning again and again what it is that I actually see when I look at flowers and other objects, and attempting to create expressions of the light and other information picked up by the lens of my camera. During that process I realized that I would like to give some thought to the significance of painting in a realist manner. Antonio López García was one artist whose realist works held a particular attraction for me, and I decided to investigate what it was in his works that I found so alluring. Based on information from the Nagasaki Prefectural Museum of Art and from an acquaintance familiar with his works, I made a trip to Madrid.
At the Galería Marlborough, all I was able to see was a single work by López, painted while he was still young. Depicting a woman seated on a chair, it had little impression of being a realist painting. Instead, the woman had an air of being lost in thought.
Attempting to express the radiance of life, I have often chosen flowers as motifs. In Madrid, I was enthralled by the forms of geraniums, which were probably the flowers that I saw most of. Returning to Japan, I began a new project, beginning by growing the flowers to be painted.
Painting flowers that were still growing in pots was a new experience. In the past, I had always selected pressed flowers or preserved flowers as motifs because I could shine light on them when painting. Working with live flowers was very different. The plants in the pots changed from day to day, with flowers repeatedly blooming and withering. I found it difficult to capture them in forms that led to finished paintings. Nevertheless, painting the geraniums allowed me to see something else: a sense of life rising from them like flames, and light that glinted like moonlight.
Although gazing at the present, I am conscious of thinking about the long and continuous history of life, the universal life possessed by the flowers that have become my motifs. From time to time I recall the painting by López of the woman deep in thought.
Yoshimi Miyamoto
今冬、イムラアートギャラリーでは宮本佳美の個展を開催いたします。
宮本は水彩絵の具をメインに用いて、モノクロームの絵画を制作する事により光の表現を試みています。作品ごとに、様々な色の絵の具を混ぜ合わせた「黒色」を使用し、白の絵の具と滲みを重ねながら制作しています。2014年に第25回五島記念文化賞・美術新人賞を受賞、2017年には北海道、愛知、奈良と巡回したグループ展「ニッポンの写実 そっくりの魔力」に出品歴を持つ、実力派の作家です。
本展は2021年11月の東京での個展の巡回展となり、追加の新作を含めた約６点を展覧いたします。植物の生命の循環にも見られるような、彼女のこだわりの「黒色」と白で描いた光の表現から生まれる生命力を感じていただければ幸いです。ゼラニウムモチーフの作品によって構成される空間をご堪能くださいませ。
作家コメント
2019年の春、私はマドリードにあるMarlboroughギャラリーを訪ねた。目的はアントニオ・ロペス・ガルシアの所蔵作品を見せてもらう事だった。光を探求するうちに、色の情報を排除したモノトーンの絵を描いて来たが、目に飛び込んでくる花、物の中に私は何を見ているのか自問自答繰り返し、あるいはカメラのレンズから読み取れる光や情報を表現する中で、私は一度写実的に描く意義を考えたいと思っていた。写実画を描く画家の中でも私はアントニオ・ロペス・ガルシアの作品にひかれた。彼の絵の何にひかれて居るのか知りたい。自分の目で確かめたいと所蔵場所の一つである長崎県美術館や精通されている方から情報を得た末のマドリード行きだった。
Marlboroughギャラリーでその時見ることができたのは、ロペスの若い頃の作品一点のみ。女性が椅子に腰掛けた様子を描いたその絵は写実的に描かれた印象は無い、どこか物思いにふける印象を持つ絵で有った。
命の輝きを表現する場面で私は花を度々モチーフとして選んできた。マドリードで恐らく最も多く見たゼラニウムの造形に心をひかれ、日本に戻り花を育てる所から制作を始めた。
鉢植えから伸びる花を描くのは初めてであった。これまでは、モチーフとして生命を失った花に光をあてる事が出来る表現がしたくて、押し花やプリザーブドフラワーを使用して来た。それに反して、鉢植えの花は日々形を変え大きくなり、花は咲いては枯れを繰り返し、作品につながるまでのフォルムとしてとらえる事に困難を感じた。しかし、ゼラニウムを描いていて見えてきたのは立ち上がる炎の様な生命感やきらめく月光りの様な光りであった。
現実を見つめながら意識はモチーフの花が持つ普遍的な生命をつないで来た歴史を想像している。そしてロペスの何処か物思いにふける印象の女性の絵をしばし思い出している。
宮本佳美