Yuma Tomiyasu
I visited Yuma Tomiyasu’s solo exhibition “Midnight Visitors.”
The venue is the art gallery / alternative space of Seibu Shibuya Building B, which actively promotes young artists.
Speaking of Yuma Tomiyasu, she is an artist who made her name with “Repeatedly Seen Dreams,” held at the Shiseido Gallery from June 8 to July 1, 2018. It drew attention as an installation with paranormal phenomena and uncanny experiences as its motifs, forming long lines with waits of up to two hours in the latter half of the run. A record video remains, so I’ll embed it below.
Also, from January 11 to February 3, 2019, she held the solo exhibition “Making All Things Equal / The Sleepwalkers” at the Art Front Gallery in Daikanyama, where—while grounded in installation—she gave a major presentation of the world of oil painting.
What is common to both worldviews is the high degree of completion as paintings, backed by advanced pictorial skill.
After studying at the University of the Arts London from 2005 to 2012, Yuma Tomiyasu went on to the Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School, and in 2017 earned her doctorate in its doctoral program (from the official site).
Looking at the past works in her portfolio, one sees a wide range of activity—not only painting but photography, video, and sculpture. I could sense a solid career and a broad range as an artist.
Yuma Tomiyasu — Midnight Visitors
This exhibition, “Midnight Visitors,” is composed mainly of about 20 new oil paintings exploring the boundary between the real and unreal with the keyword “dream.”
Also, in the inner space of the art gallery, her customary installation work was set up.
When you visit Tomiyasu’s solo show, the time and world of the space you stand in switch in an instant, letting you dive into another dimension as if cut off from the everyday. In contrast to the crowded earlier Shiseido Gallery show, this time it was a gallery I could almost have to myself. I was able to savor the many wonderful works and the space.
