Plant Life, 2002-2003
Water color on paper
22.5 x 27.3 cm
©Yoshino Masui

The works of Yoshino Masui consist of delicate minute watercolor paintings. Based on the colors and scents of her childhood, she occasionally expresses mysterious landscapes with animals arranged within them, and in image planes which have been painted repeatedly over time, smears and carefully drawn lines give rise to distinctive textures. Having experienced the severing of ties with the land where she was born, Masui who is often stricken with sensations of floating, talks of trying once more to connect with her birthplace through her painting. In beautiful and colorful works in which she wishes “to paint things which anyone can understand”, the heart of the viewer is captured directly, recalling landscapes and sensations which appear to have been seen somewhere or felt before within memory. Works on view in this exhibition were made since 2010 including 4 new works.

Born in 1976, Shizuoka prefecture, Yoshino Masui graduated from the Faculty of Art and Design, Tama Art University in 1999 and is currently based in Tokyo.