2025.9.26-11.1

Gallery Yamaki Fine Art is pleased to present the solo exhibition Asuka Nakayama, the artist’s sixth solo show at the gallery. The exhibition brings together a diverse selection of works ranging from large-scale dynamic paintings produced during her student years to more recent, introspective small-scale pieces created while raising children. This comprehensive survey traces Nakayama’s evolving creative journey as both an artist and a mother.

Nakayama has long explored the complex and often contradictory relationship between human beings and nature—a dynamic that involves both coexistence and control. In recent years, this theme has found renewed resonance in her personal experience of motherhood, where the act of living with and caring for another person often reveals the same tensions between guidance and surrender. These layered perspectives are reflected in her brushwork and imagery, blending fantastical landscapes with intimate, real-life sensibilities.

This exhibition also foregrounds a body of works that originate from fleeting doubts and subtle dissonances encountered in Nakayama’s daily life. Rendered with a candid yet surreal sensibilities, these pieces probe the latent ambiguities and absurdities embedded within mundane gestures and quotidian scenes. By infusing humor and a nuanced visual lexicon into her imagery, Nakayama activates the viewer’s imaginative engagement and gently destabilizes the perception of reality.

Nakayama’s distinctive approach has earned her continued recognition over the years. She received the digmeout Prize at via art OSAKA 2008, the Mayor’s Prize at the Kyoto City University of Arts Graduation Exhibition in 2010, the Kyoto Shimbun Prize at the Kyoto Emerging Artists Exhibition in 2021, and most recently, the prestigious Akaso-sha Prize in memory of Fumiko Kametaka in 2024.

By presenting works from across her career, this exhibition offers a unique opportunity to explore the themes that have shaped Nakayama’s practice—along with the quiet yet profound transformations that have emerged from her personal milestones. We warmly invite you to experience the poetic and thought-provoking world of Asuka Nakayama.