Nihon Ookami (Japanese wolf)

About Yumiko Kayukawa

Japanese artist Yumiko Kayukawa has lived and worked in the United States for the past six years. Since then, she says she has grown much more interested in her home country. Her images connect the traditional Japanese form of manga with… Read more

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Japanese artist Yumiko Kayukawa has lived and worked in the United States for the past six years. Since then, she says she has grown much more interested in her home country. Her images connect the traditional Japanese form of manga with the specific feeling of a younger generation that learned to express itself through an array of media. Originally, manga was an informal form of representation, a narrative snapshot – not a comic strip. The concept was made popular over 200 years ago by the most famous of Japanese artists, Ukiyo-e-Meister Katsushika Hokusai. Yumiko Kayukawa captures this traditional form, translates it for contemporary society, and infuses it with individual elements and selected subjects. Animals, both wild and tame, always have a place in her iconic vocabulary. In the context of her pieces, nature, people, and animals are inseparable. The scenes in her images feel like a reworked Japanese version of Alice in Wonderland, whereby the supposed childlike naivety is always broken. A girl with tattooed arms, swinging a samurai sword in “Nihon Ookami” strongly recollects the famous films she’s modeled after. The drawings of pop culture and cultural history act as eventful ingredients in the innovative visual language of her images. The young girl in Kayukawa’s pictures is transmutable; she always slips into new roles and takes on new situations. Yumiko Kayukawa illustrates the feeling of an entire generation that is searching for itself, always in tension with the old and the new.

Stephan Reisner

BIOGRAPHY

Selected Bibliography

2006 Giarla, Justin, The Wild Kingdom of Yumiko Kayukawa, 9mm Books, San Francisco, USA
2005 Brereton, Richard, and Marc Valli, ed. Graphic 08 – Ornate! Book Industry Services (BIS) Publishers, Amsterdam, Netherlands

VITA

1970 Born in Hokkaido, Japan
Bisen Art School, Sapporo, Japan
Since 2005 Lives and works in Seattle, Washington, USA

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

2011 Rock you in a Tatami Room, The Shooting Gallery, San Francisco, Califonia, USA
2010 49 Days, La Luz DE, Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA
2009 Wild Wild East, The Shooting Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA
Higashi No Kamisama (God from the East), Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, USA
2008 Japanese Wolf, Shooting Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA
Extinction, La Luz De Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA
2007 World Wide Enemy, The Shooting Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA
Girl Cocktail, M Modern Gallery, Palm Springs, California, USA
2006 I’m from Japan. My father is Ninja, My mother is Geisha, La Luz De Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA
2005 Solo Show at DC Gallery, Denver, Colorado, USA
Yumiko Kayukawa, Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA
2003 Solo Show, Shooting Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA
Solo Show, C-Pop Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Yumiko Kayukawa, Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA
2002 Solo Show at Roq La Rue Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA

Group Exhibitions

2011 The Enchanted Forest, Civic Museum of Reggio Emilia, Italy
The Enchanted Forest, Strychnin Gallery, Berlin, Germany
You Lucky Bastard, Ayden Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2010 The Idol Hours, London Miles Gallery, London, United Kingdom
New Moon, My Plastic Heart, New York, USA
2009 “Family First” at The Shooting Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA
Scoop art fair, New York, USA
ACRIA “Unframed” charity event, New York, USA
2008 The Good, The Bad and The Beautiful, The Richard Goodall Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom
2007 Pre-Halloween, Roq La Lue Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA
Tag of War, Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington DC, USA
2006 We’ll Make a Lover of You, Miami Art Center for Miami Art Basel, Miami, Florida, USA
Year Of The Dog, The Shooting Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA
2005 Beast From The East, Roq La Rue Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA
2004 Juxtapoz Show, Fuse Gallery, New York, USA
Yumiko/Oksana, Ox-Op Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
2003 Gods and Monsters, Roq La Rue Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA