Yui Akiyama

Yui Akiyama

Świeczki

160x150cm

Yui Akayama graduated from the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 2017, where she studied in Jarosław Modzelewski’s painting studio. She was born in Osaka, Japan. She is interested in literature, which she studied at Kyoto University. She got fascinated with Polish culture thanks to a book by Toshio Shimao. After several visits to Poland, she became a student of Polish Philology at the University of Warsaw in 2011. A weekend painting course led her to studying at Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts. As she says, she has been interested in art since she can remember. Her diploma exhibition, jokingly entitled No to do zo bo po co at Galeria Wizytująca, was very well received. It was sent to the all-Polish exhibition of best diplomas in Gdańsk in 2017, where the artist won the Mayor of Gdańsk Award. She also has several other prizes under her belt, including e.g. the Entry grant and Stefan Gierowski Foundation Award for the best 2017 painting diploma. In my view, Yui Akiyama’s curatorial work is important: in 2018, the artist co-curated (with Cyryl Polaczek) a review exhibition of painting entitled Komunikacja ze wszystkim co jest (Communication with Everything There Is) in the Stefan Gierowski Foundation. This is what Gierowski wrote about the exhibition: “Two painters organize a group exhibition. What kind of painting is important for them in the modern, post-postmodernist times? It is just a small review here, i.e. in the world, a small fragment of the full picture of young art”.

“When you list only the points which look good on my CV, I feel like I listen to another person’s story. Of course, various things have been happening in between, and they are equally important to me,” said Yui Akiyama in an interview for Contemporary Lynx. And indeed, for me, someone who knows Yui, the most important thing is her sensitivity to the little things, interpersonal matters, and her imagination. As well as literary intuition. Through her pictures, Yui tells stories. She does it in a beautiful and concise form, using harmonious colour alignments, in which her Japanese roots may perhaps be felt. But unavoidably, her work is characterised by intercultural sensitivity. Many things originate here from a comedy of errors travellers encounter, a bit like in Sofia Coppola’s film Lost in Translation. She borrowed what’s best from the Warsaw colourist school, and Modzelewski’s influence is seen in the surface arrangement of the picture. At the same time, Yui’s art is unique in the softness of the line and metaphoric quality of the motifs. Her painting is valuable from the point of view of the eye and lyrical feel. The painter has a knack for translating trivial, autobiographical events into a universal language. I consider her art worth a close look.

Jan Mioduszewski

www.behance.net/yuiakiyama

Education

• 2014 Uniwersytet Kioto, Historia Sztuki i Estetyki
• 2017 Warszawska Akademia Sztuk Pięknych, Wydział Malarstwa

Individual Exhibitions

• 2019 Brak mi słów, Wizytująca Galeria, Warszawa
• 2019 „Papierowy śnieg”, Galeria Promocyjna, Warszawa
• 2017 no to do zo bo po co , Wizytująca Galeria, Warszawa
• 2016 … bo myślałam, że u ciebie noc będzie długa, Galeria Wyjście Awaryjne, Warszawa

Collective Exhibitions

• 2019 44. Biennale Malarstwa Bielska Jesień 2019, Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko-Biała
• 2019 Pospolita rzecz zabita, Oddział Przepiękny, Ząbki
• 2019 Jikihitsu. The Signature of the Artist, SARP, Warszawa
• 2019 The Son of Man-Machine, Galeria EL, Elbląg
• 2019 Bardzo dobrze, Kolonia Artystów – Dolne Miasto, Gdańsk
• 2019 Man-Machine, Centrum Aktywności Twórczej, Ustka
• 2018 Apetyt, Aleje Ujazdowskie 8, Warszawa
• 2018 Komunikacja ze wszystkim, co jest, Fundacja Stefana Gierowskiego, Warszawa
• 2018 Wystawa VII edycji konkursu o Nagrodę Artystyczną Nowy Obraz / Nowe Spojrzenie, Galeria Słodownia +1, Poznań and Galeria BWA, Piła
• 2017 Przedwiośnie, Galeria Działań, Warszawa
• 2017 27. Ogólnopolski Przegląd Malarstwa Młodych Promocje 2017, Galeria Sztuki,Legnica
• 2017 Może nad Wisłą? – Wystawa prac w duchu Land art, Warszawa
• 2017 Najlepsze Dyplomy Akademii Sztuk Pięknych 2017, Gdańsk: Zbrojownia Sztuki i ASP w Gdańsku
• 2016 Rekonesans, FIU Art + Art History Project Room, Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami
• 2016 Sympozjum artystyczne Puławy – Chemia – Sztuka, Puławski Park Naukowo-Technologiczny, Puławy
• 2016 POP/KOLOR”, Galeria18A, Warszawa
• 2016 Morze w swobodnym geście artysty, Centrum Aktywności Twórczej, Ustka
• 2016 Unexpected trip to Havirov, Galeria Radost, Hawierzów
• 2015 Śladami Wilhelma Sasnala, BWA Tarnów
• 2015 Co jest ważne?, Skwer – filia Centrum Artystycznego Fabryka Trzciny, Warszawa
• 2015 Wystawa Finalistów Ogólnopolskiego Studenckiego Konkursu Malarskiego im. Wojciecha Fangora, ASP w Gdańsku
• 2014 Festiwal Sztuk Miasto Gwiazd, Żyrardów