Yuka Tsuruno Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Yu Yasuda, Drifting about in time, from July 17th to August 14th, 2021. In his first show in three years at the gallery, he presents new paintings that explore the physical presence of the painting in addition to its being an image, while retaining an interest in moments and phenomena that shift and change like the fluctuation of water.

　Yasuda’s paintings are characterized by a fluid world reminiscent of landscapes that evoke the flow of time and space, and the movement of water conjured by the countless layers of neutral colors. Landscapes that were first seen in his early works as figurative portrayals of emotional states and everyday life transform into abstract paintings that weave together masses of color, and his particular style has emerged from this back and forth between the abstract and figurative. In the painting process, each moment laid down by each brushstroke leads to the next by chance of hue and color configuration, without a final image in mind, to conceive an image that transforms and shifts as a whole.

　Keeping this interest in the water-like incessant ebb and flow of phenomena, he has recently also started using cleaning brushes and cake knives, household items with different intended functions, in addition to paintbrushes. Yasuda enjoys the discrepancy between the practice and the outcome – the same physical movements are performed but result in unexpected traces and images that are not governed by familiarity. He is also increasingly drawn to the physicality of painting, such as in the uncertainty of the images brought about by the use of new tools, and the endurance of marks as remnants of physical disparity. In his recent works the flow that appears in the pictorial space not only radiates outward, but is depicted as if to contain itself within the picture plane, executed in a texture not limited to fluidity, with emphasis on its boundaries. These developments evolved in such a way as to blur the boundary between, and to tie together dualities such as the real world and the representational world, the object and the subject, inside and outside, and are painted as creations that waver between image and object, evoking flowing moments and emotional states that fluctuate from moment to moment.
　
　
Artist Profile
－
Born 1982, Kagawa. Yasuda received a MA in oil painting from Musashino Art University in 2007. His works were shown in exhibitions including VOCA 2008 (The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, 2008), Art in an Office (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, 2011), The Exhibition of the Collection (Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, 2012). He has been widening his scope of activity, such as completing a public work for Toranomon Hills.
　
　
Exhibition Outline
－
Yu Yasuda
Drifting about in time
Date: July 17 – August 14, 2021
Opening hours: Tue – Thu, Sat, 11am – 6pm; Fri 11am – 8pm
* Closed on Sunday, Monday, and National holidays