Mother and War
2019
acrylic on canvas
260.1x260.6cm
YAMAMOTO Ryuki Exhibition（TOKYO）
22 July - 22 August 2020
* Summer holiday : 13th – 17th August
To deter spreading the infection of COVID-19, we accept admissions by appointments only, and maximum capacity of 6 people per 30 minutes during the exhibition (For opening day: maximum capacity 12 people per 1 hour), opened from 12:00 to 18:00 (last admission 17:30).
Please kindly make an appointment through the online website or email below before your visit.
https://airrsv.net/mizumaartgallery/calendar [Japanese Only] event@mizuma-art.co.jp
Mizuma Art Gallery presents an exhibition by Yamamoto Ryuki starting on 22nd July.
Yamamoto has been drawing self-portraits using various techniques, and continues to try to draw everything in the universe using only self-portraits. This is his first solo exhibition in six years at Mizuma Art Gallery.
Yamamoto says he gets his inspiration from daily events that happens within his three-meter radius. After his solo exhibition in 2014 and gaining experiences working abroad in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Yamamoto gradually began to draw the people around him in a way of inductive reasoning to further his self-portraits. In this exhibition, several images in the form of others will also be presented.
As an exceptional otherness as images for Yamamoto, the figure he has painted several times in the past was of his mother. In the epic “Mother and War” his youthful mother is depicted as a large figure in the center of the canvas, symbolizing woman. His mother, encircled by Buddhas and smiling at the center of the universe, is surrounded by countless fighter jets and Yamamotos wearing school uniforms who are hovering around her, and repeating battles. Sexuality and life that seek diversity, repeat competition and natural selection in every aspect. “Mother and War” depicts this world shaped by its magnetic chaos and vigor.
The expression of the world, symbolized in a manner so personal, holds universality as its positions and roles are interchangeable. We invite you to examine the expressions of self-portraits which Yamamoto has thoroughly undertaken for the past six years.
