Studio Visit with Kohei Yamada
I had the opportunity to visit Kohei Yamada’s studio.
The day I called on him was early January, just after New Year 2020. I paid a visit to a unit in an apartment building in the western suburbs of Tokyo.
Kohei Yamada centers his practice on portrait works that incorporate motifs quoted from art, design, film, and other sources. His production process is meticulous and painstaking, as follows.
Even at the preparatory-drawing stage, he measures the composition to the millimeter while finding the median value, and he fully determines the colors at the drawing stage while considering the overall balance of the picture.
After carefully transferring the drawing onto a panel that he has stretched with cotton cloth himself, he then paints it in with oils.
Even when drawing straight lines or circles, he cherishes the subtle wavering that inevitably arises because the work is done by hand.
Note the characters written on it.
Right: Loretta Lux. He has been greatly influenced by both.
His upcoming schedule includes “Bi no Yokan 2019,” which starting January 29, 2020 tours Takashimaya locations from Tokyo to Kyoto, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, and Shinjuku, as well as a group exhibition in March — offering opportunities to see his work through the spring.
He is an artist to watch in 2020 as well.
I also interviewed him as a collector. Please refer to the article below.
