Introduction:
In the landscape paintings by Yuka Kashihara, existing scenery and imaginary inner spaces are woven together like a fine texture. Such practice has grew out of Kashihara's, who graduated in Japan and moved to Germany, interests in "distance"; physical distance between Germany and Japan, emotional distance with people and both cultures, and the distance inside of herself as a Japanese and a German. Experiencing these "distances" and movements have brought her the changes in the perspectives, such as nostalgia for and alienation of the familiar places, and then made her face herself deeply, resulting in the expression with motifs that signify her reflexivity, such as "mountain", "hole" and "lake".
In Kashihara's paintings, many thin layers of oil paint give the original nuance and resonance of colors that enrich the motifs. This technique has been created by her combining the techniques of Japanese Art that she learned at the undergraduate and those of oil painting. Kashihara, who has also learned the traditional European art, does not merely attempt the assimilation of different traditions, but observes the existent category critically, and engages earnestly in her artistic practice of "own individual history".

Concept:
This exhibition features approximately 10 new paintings with the motifs mentioned above. Kashihara describes the core ideas of these works; "I have been working on "digging a hole" to know myself. Where are the boundaries between things outside and inside? Am I in the internal space or outside space? The places that I thought were inside may actually be outside, or vise versa. Also, are these places the entrances that I will be entering, or the exits I have come out?"
These questions, through Kashihara's works that evoke various images and memories, are left to the viewers. This exhibition presents these paintings for the first time in Japan.

Artist Biography:
Yuka Kashihawa was born in Hiroshima prefecture in 1980. She graduated from Musashino Art University in 2006, majoring in Japanese Painting. She moved to Germany in 2006, and enrolled in Academy of Arts (HGB) Leipzig in 2007, where she currently studies. Kashihara held the solo exhibition "Shakkei" at Bauhaus Dessau (curated by Torsten Blume) in 2008. She participated in the group exhibitions organized by Moritz Goetze at Galerie Burgstrasse in 2007 and 2008. This is the first solo exhibition at Tomio Koyama Gallery.

* The text provided by Tomio Koyama Gallery.

Period: March 5 - April 9, 2011
Venue: Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 6F
Reception: March 5, 2011, 18:00 − 20:00