Yûki YASHIRO, a natural artist.

Yuki Yashiro is very much an artist in the sense described by Pierre Soulages in these few lines. Her art is pure, primal and complete.
Like the materials with which she works, the feelings that she transposes into each of her works, and the strength that emanates from her smile and her frail form.
Beginnings
Yûki Yashiro was born in Japan in Okayama in the early 80s.
Thanks to her mother, a gallery owner in Osaka, Yûki grew up in an artistic environment, with a great sensitivity for colours, culture and tradition.
She was introduced to the work of many artists at an early age and began by studying not only the techniques used by Egon Schiele and Pierre Bonnard, but also the life in the paintings, often bohemian, which was the life of the artists (Picasso, Matisse) and which was to influence her attraction to Paris and France as a source of inspiration.
Her soul and her whole being were already devoted to Art in the highest sense. She has never made a choice between painting, sculpture and drawing. For her, Art is all-enveloping, and it fits her like a glove.
Yûki's "worlds"
Yûki began to produce her own work at the age of thirteen. She painted, drew and sculpted, trying her hand at a range of very different techniques, each requiring precision and the study of the materials involved (watercolours, oils, charcoal, pencil, engravings on wood and metal, ink, pastel).
She has never given preference to one medium over another. On the contrary, she finds inspiration in the differences associated with the constraints of each discipline, and seeks to advance steadily and selflessly, in all of the various techniques.
This is one of her major characteristics and is evident in her earliest work. She conceives her work as an approach that is both comprehensive and complex, but also in terms of a specially selected set of materials, colours and themes.
Yûki does not paint to fill the canvas or sculpt to transform matter. She is constantly mastering and perfecting techniques in order to give free rein to her feelings, emotions and experiences, and translate them into works of art.
Woodcutting, painting, sculpture...
...Yûki enjoys exploring matter, materials and feelings.
For some time her favourite technique has been woodcutting, a demanding process requiring strength, flexibility, patience, precision, and a vision of the work. Using special paper imported directly from Japan, she has developed a modern version of this technique that was so widely used by newspapers and cartoonists in the early twentieth century.
For her, nothing is excluded: oils, pencil, watercolours, pastel, ink, charcoal may be combined with engraving, on wood of course, or metal, or even sculpture.
Yûki likes to work and feel every facet of her Art, without any separation. To incorporate explosions of colour, or the purity of black and white.
Off the beaten track
Like her work in its richness, strength, complexity and all-encompassing nature, Yuki is a unique artist, preferring to create her own path away from the crowds.
She could have taken the relatively easy route of entering one of the Japanese painting schools, becoming recognized by her peers, exhibiting "at home" in the family gallery and joining the world of young, evolving artists in her own country.
Instead, she chose risk and independence, seeking new experiences and new worlds and alternative artistic approaches.
Her nature and love of perfection obliged her to choose the most difficult path.
Based in Paris for nearly three years, her work has progressed very rapidly:
several visits to the Moulin Rouge, the world-famous symbol of Paris, inspired her to create a series of extremely striking woodcuts, in which the independence and strength of her eye, combined with her mastery of this complex technique, reveals the world of the artists who give their all to the show, highlighting their suffering, hard work and rigour. She also organized an exhibition at the LA-MU gallery in Osaka in 2008 on the theme of the Moulin Rouge.
Themes and techniques blend depending on her desires and inspiration: panthers, tigers and zebras are captured in engravings or drawings, peonies and watermelons are represented in oils, nudes and still lifes flourish in pastel, or are sketched in pencil or ink...
Yûki explores, plays, is both surprised and surprising, captivating us and transporting us. Her art and her skill are such that there is something of herself and of ourselves in all of her work.
If "A World without art would be blind to itself", then Yûki's talent and her art help us to open our eyes a little more. "Like the air that I breathe, I cannot live without expressing my feelings through the arts, and painting in particular. It is a permanent, deep-rooted need." Yûki Yashiro
Text by Stéphane FARGETTE,
Faithful admirer of the artist's work
Faithful admirer of the artist's work
2008 | Diplômée de l'Université des Arts Plastiques KYOTO (Faculté des Arts, département des Beaux-Arts et des Arts appliqués, cursus : peinture à l'huile, gravure sur bois) |
2006 | Académie de la Grande Chaumière (FRANCE) | 2007 | Atelier 63 (atelier de gravure, France) |
2004 | Séléctionnée du 5ème Concours de dessin (sujet : nature) organisé par l'Université des Arts Plastiques KYOTO et l'Université des Arts Appliqués TOHOKU |
2005 | Obtenu le prix spécial du 6ème Concours de dessin (sujet : non-nature) organisé par l'Université des Arts Plastiques KYOTO et l'Université des Arts Appliqués TOHOKU |
2007 | Séléctionnée du 4ème Salon des grands prix de gravure commémoratif de Munakata |
2008 | Obetenu le prix d'encouragement à l'Exposition d'échanges artistiques internationaux |
2011 | Sélectionnée pour l'exposition du Grand plais ART-EN-CAPITAL |
2012 | Obtenu le prix de bronze de l'exposition du Carrousel du Louvre à Paris |
2014 | Obtenu le prix d'argent de l'exposition du Carrousel du Louvre à Paris |
1/04 - 07/04 /2005 | Exposition de YASHIRO Yûki "Katauta - esansu wa yuki ga tokenai" |
30/07 - 05/08 /2006 | Exposition de gravure de YASHIRO Yûki |
05/02 - 10/02 /2008 | Exposition 30x30 (Université des Arts Plastiques KYOTO,Beaux-Arts et Arts appliqués, cours de gravure) à la Galerie KEI-FU |
27/02 - 02/03 /2008 | Exposition pour la fin d'études (Université des Arts Plastiques KYOTO) au Musée municipal des arts de Kyoto |
08/03 - 14/03 /2008 | Exposition de YASHIRO Yûki "Moulin Rouge" à la Galerie LA-MU |
19/11 - 21/11 /2010 | Exposition Laudun l'ardoise salon des arts 2010 LE FORUM - LAUDUN L'ARDOISE |
22/11 - 27/11 /2011 | Exposition du Grand plais ART-EN-CAPITAL |
27/01 - 09/02 /2012 | Exposition du 30ème anniversaire du N.A.C à la Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris |
13/12 - 16/12 /2012 | Salon Société Nationale des beaux arts Carrousel du Louvre (France) |
22/01 - 29/02 /2013 | Exposition à la galerie LA-MU à Osaka (Japon) |
12/12 - 15/12 /2013 | Salon Société Nationale des beaux arts Carrousel du Louvre (France) |
23/10 - 26/10 /2014 | Exposition à Grez-sur-Loing (France) |
11/12 - 14/12 /2014 | Salon Société Nationale des beaux arts Carrousel du Louvre (France) |
11/02 - 25/02 /2015 | Exposition du N.A.C à la Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris (France) |
20/02 - 22/02 /2015 | Japan Tours Festival (France) |
31/07 - 02/08 /2015 | Echall’art echallant (France) | 17/12 - 22/12 /2015 | Salon Société Nationale des beaux arts Carrousel du Louvre (France) |
15/09 - 18/09 /2016 | BERLINER LISTE 2016 Berlin (Allemagne) |
08/12 - 11/12 /2016 | Salon Société Nationale des beaux arts Carrousel du Louvre (France) |