Location

Country: Japan
City: Tokyo
Place: British Embassy

Exploration of colour and space are central themes in Yuko Shiraishi’s painting. In Core Pink, a painting from 1994, two fields of colour meet, creating an ambiguous sense of space. Is one band of colour receding while the other comes forward? Or vice versa? The textured surface of the painting adds to this illusion of depth and space.

While stylistically referencing the colour field canvases of mid-20th century American Abstract Expressionist artists, Shiraishi’s use of light and colour offer subtle, more nuanced expressions of her perception of the world. She once described her approach to painting: 

I am interested in the inner workings of reality. Many different phenomena combine together to form the world. There is harmony in the face of contradiction. The simplicity of appearance of the final painting is achieved through a rather complicated set of processes which is within this simple cycle, individuals weave their own complicated physical and spiritual histories.

Yuko Shiraishi was born in Tokyo. She lived in Vancouver, Canada between 1974 and 1976 before moving to England to study at the Chelsea School of Art in London from 1978–1982. Since 1980, she has exhibited frequently, both in London and overseas, including at Annely Juda Fine Art, London; Shigeru Yokota Gallery, Tokyo; and the Gallery Kasahara, Osaka. Her work is represented in numerous public collections around the world including the British Museum and The National Museum of Art, Osaka. She lives and works in London. Major public commissions of her work include a mural for the reception of the BBC Media Centre in White City in 2004, and an interior colour scheme for Nigata Hospital in Nigata, Japan.

Places

Subjects

abstract

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Yuko Shiraishi (1956 - )

Title

Core Pink

Date

1994

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 152.00 cm, width: 137.50 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Annely Juda Fine Art, November 1997

Inscription

verso tr: YUKO SHIRAISHI / CORE PINK / 1994

GAC number

17287