Mayumi Yamakawa ha studiato tecniche giapponesi e forme d’arte con il pittore Hozan Matsumoto nella sua città natale, Kobe.
Dopo il suo trasferimento in Germania alla fine degli anni ottanta, Yamakawa si immerse nell’uso di metodi e ricette europei tradizionali e moderni per realizzare le proprie vernici. Come risultato ha scoperto tempera all’uovo e tempera grassa (tempera all’uovo) come mezzo efficace per la pittura, e allo stesso tempo ha ampliato la sua gamma artistica.
Oggi le opere dell’artista riflettono un errare tra due culture: l’Estremo Oriente e l’Occidente, in particolare quello dell’Europa Centrale. Questo girovagare si manifesta in molti modi, ma rimane sempre soggetto al tema principale, l’interazione di luci e ombre, e il suo credo “less is more”. Il Giappone nei suoi dipinti è nel colore, che segue le diverse regole estetiche e il modo in cui è visto a quello dell’Europa. Il Giappone è anche il “forte” e, come parte del suo sviluppo artistico, una riduzione progressiva tipica dei dipinti orientali classici: pochi tratti o piani di colore tendenti al monocromo, che suggeriscono il soggetto piuttosto che rivelarlo in dettaglio. L’interpretazione è quindi lasciata più all’immaginazione dello spettatore piuttosto che attraverso una chiara spiegazione visiva.
Mayumi Yamakawa studied Japanese techniques and forms of expression of fine art with the painter Hozan Matsumoto in her home town, Kobe.
Following her relocation to Germany in the late eighties, Yamakawa immersed herself in the use of traditional and modern European methods and recipes to make her own paints, and in handling these paint “raw materials”. As a result she discovered egg tempera and tempera grassa (egg oil tempera) as effective mediums for painting, and at the same time broadened her artistic range.
Today the artist’s works reflect a wandering between two cultures – the Far Eastern and the Western, particularly that of Central Europe. This wandering manifests itself in many ways but always remains subject to her main theme, the interplay of light and shadow, and her credo “less is more”.
The Japanese in her paintings is color, which follows different aesthetic rules and the way it is viewed to that of Europe. Japanese is also the strong and, as part of her artistic development, progressive reduction that is typical for classical Far Eastern paintings: a few strokes or planes of color tending towards the monochrome, hinting at the subject matter rather than revealing it in detail. Interpretation is thus left more to the viewer’s imagination rather than through a clear visual explanation.
Membership
KVD (=Künstlervereinigung Dachau e.V. Professional Artists Association), Germany
Works in collection (selection)
Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Glass Design Center Abate Zanetti (since 1862), Venice, Italy
Stichting (Foundation) Art & Performance, the Netherlands
Various private art collections in Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and Japan
Scholarship and awards (selection)
2016 Shortlist, The 3. Derwent Art Prize, London
2014 Finalist, Florence Shanghai Prize 2014, Italy/China
2013 Gold medal at the glass art competition “Premio Murano 2013” Venice, Italy
„Artists of Distinction”, 6. Art Magazine Award“, USA
Projects (selection)
2018 Art magazine Spotlight —“ Featured Artists“, Lyon, France
2013-2017 Collaborative works of several installations of Royal Academicians
Selection
Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany; University of Brighton Gallery, United Kigdom;
Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia, Spain ; NOWNESS, New York City; Athens
2015 Lecturer for Summer Academy, Dachauer Forum, Germany
Exhibitions (selection)
2019 Gallery Kleine Altstadtgalerie, as a part of the 100th anniversary celebration of the Artists
association KVD, Germany
“Abstract -Opera Astratta”, Villa Brentano, Busto Garolfo/Milan, Italy
2018 R8 – 8th Ottava Rassegna di Arte Contemporanea (contemporary art exhibition),
Casa dei Carrarsi, Treviso—Veneto, Italy.
Outsider Art Fair, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York
2016 L.A. Center for Contemporary Digital Art, Los Angeles
Shortlist exhibitions of The 3rd Derwent Art Prize, The Mall Galleries, London
Trowbridge Arts, United Kingdom
2014 Altomünster Museum, Germany
Since 2013 Schlossausstellung (yearly Castle exhibition since 1919), Dachau Castle, Germany
2013 Toskanische Säulenhalle (City Art Hall of Palace), Augsburg, Germany
Gallery Old City Hall, Priem am Chimsee, Germany
2012 European Art Exhibition, Museum Veluwezoom in Kasteel Doorwerth (Castle), Netherlands
2013, 2012 Kunstforum Arabellapark, Munich, Germany
2012, 2011, 2010 Municipal gallery Kulturschranne, Dachau, Germany
2011 Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, USA
Contemporary Drawings (online), Royal Academy of Arts, London
7th European Art Triennale, Tervuren/Brussels, Belgium
2010 7th International artists week and exhibition, Duingallery, Netherlands
Municipal gallery, Galerie der KVD, Dachau, Germany
2009 Hyogo Prefectural Cultural Center, Kobe, Japan
2008 Kulturhaus Milbertshofen”, Munich, Germany