In Parallel

SAI presents  “In Parallel,” a three-artist exhibition featuring Yosuke Yamanouchi, Yukino Yamanaka, and Kenta Kawabata.

All three artists primarily work in oil paint and have continued to create while engaging with figures, figurative expression, and the materials themselves through their respective unique approaches. The exhibition title, “In Parallel,” reflects how the artists’ practices—though existing within the same era and the same medium of painting—proceed in parallel without intersecting. By juxtaposing works with different techniques and concepts within a single space, we aim to create an exhibition where visitors can compare and experience firsthand the differences in each artist’s perspective on painting and their handling of paint.

●Artist Profile

Yosuke Yamanouchi

Engaging with the inherent appeal of oil paint as a medium, he creates works that span multiple approaches—from abstract experiments without specific subjects to figurative depictions of motifs found in everyday life. By applying thick layers of paint and then peeling or scraping them away while they are still drying, he creates unexpected visual compositions that deviate from conventional imagery. In recent years, his artistic focus has expanded from the questions of “what to paint” and “how to paint” to “why to paint.”

Yukino Yamanaka

She creates paintings based on photographs featuring herself, people close to her, and decorative objects. In this exhibition, as a new experiment, she employs a technique that creates ambiguity by sometimes outlining and sometimes omitting the contours of her facial expressions in selfies taken while wearing a plastic bag. By superimposing two forms of “otherness”— the shadows cast by her fingertips and the light and shadows filtering through the plastic — she visualizes the uncertain nature of human existence.

Kenta Kawabata

He creates his works by applying an acrylic base to wooden panels covered with cotton fabric, then layering oil paint and pencil on top. Since the advent of the Internet, he has focused on the “filters” that mediate human interactions and the disconnect between reality and perception. In recent years, while paying more attention to tactile and physical communication than to the visual, he has been exploring the temporality, traces, and physicality unique to painting.