Yuka Kashihara
Seeing in the Dark
In my life in Okinawa, picking up shellfish became a daily routine. When I looked at the shells I picked up, their patterns seemed to spread infinitely outward like a landscape painting. Walking around in the deserted jungle, the leaves floating in the air looked like stars floating in space. The coral reefs in the ocean reminded me of the majestic mountain scenery I saw when I climbed a mountain in Laos.
Shells are the sky
Leaves are the stars of the space
The sea is the mountain
Meditate and strained my eyes.
I move back and forth between the micro and macro in the majestic nature.
Gaze into the palm of my hand and the landscape spreads out.
I recall many things that have happened in the shadows.
Things that were previously invisible suddenly become visible and connected.
Primitive memories, my inner landscape, and the world on only one side.
When all of them are connected, the light shines on the other side and a new world opens up.
The 227cmx364cm large paintings and small works are exhibited that are produced during a 3-month stay at Nanjo Art Museum, based on sketches and various memories from various places such as Yonaha-dake, Daisekirinzan, Churaumi Aquarium, Sefa Utaki, Rokutahara trail, Azama beach, Mibaru beach, Hentona beach, and others.
Exhibition hall
Ogimi Village Former Shioya Elementary School 538 Shioya, Ogimi Village, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa
ARTIST
Yuka Kashihara
Born in 1980 in Hiroshima, she graduated from Musashino Art University in 2006 with a BA in Japanese Painting and moved to Germany.
In 2012, she exhibited her work at the VOCA Exhibition, where she received an Honorable Mention and the Ohara Museum of Art Prize. In the same year, she studied in Germany as an overseas trainee of the Pola Art Foundation. Graduated from the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts in 2013, and received the Akademie Meisterschueler in 2015. From 2013 to 2017, she was a part-time lecturer at the Department of Japanese Painting, Faculty of Art and Design, Musashino Art University, From 2022, she moved her base of work from Germany to Japan, where she has been working since then.
Major solo exhibitions include “First Island - Last Mountain” (Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama, 2016), “1:1” (Pola Museum Annex, 2021), “Yuka Kashihara” (Aquabella Gallery, Palm Beach, USA, 2022), “Pile of Signs ” (Tomio Koyama Gallery, Maebashi, 2024).