Yumi Kayayama – Recent Paintings

“Art begets art. It’s clear from Yumi Katayama’s recent paintings that she has been spending time with the old masters, taking things in, imbibing them. Not styles or techniques, fashions or attitudes, but moods: shivery, delicate, elusive, whispery, charged moods. Moods that speak of sanctity and solemnity. Moods with thoughtfulness baked in. Moods of then, rather than now.”

“Most of the new paintings appear to be landscapes, with skies, waters, horizons. But nowhere is recognisable. And the moods vary frantically. Sonnet of the Sea is a gentle slice of tropical perfection, a limpid thought, a seaside peace. But the Greed trilogy is a dark blast of difference – a plunge beneath the waves into a submarine undergrowth where things with teeth loom up to worry us and reptilian crabs scuttle and nip.”

Waldemar Januszczak 
Quotes from Essay from the exhibition catalogue GREED

In 1978, she decided to leave Japan for London where punk was flourishing at the time, and she started her studies at Chelsea Art School. She found herself immersed in a world of outstanding professors and classmates through her student years at Goldsmith’s College (1979-82), Central School of Art (1982-83), and Royal College of Art (1984-86). These deep experiences subconsciously helped her to form a hybrid of European and Japanese references. Selection of exhibitions: 1989 One Hundred Years of the Royal College of Art (Barbican Art Gallery), 1995, ‘White Out’ (Curwen Gallery, London), 2002 & 202, Small is Beautiful (Flowers East, London), 2020 Spring Show (Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London), 2022 Yumi Katayama Prints, 1998-2015 (SKLo, Kanazawa), 2022, Recent Paintings (White Conduit Projects, London), 2024 ‘Japan Likes Pink’ (Gallery O2, Kanazawa), Croatian Pavilion (Venice Biennale)

View exhibition catalogu- GREED text by Waldemar Januszczak