SEIZAN Gallery

B52 / Tokyo, Japan / New York

+81-3-3546-7356
https://www.artandlive.net/zh-TW/facilities/gallery-seizan

Rakuchū-Rakugai-zu (Scenes in and around Kyoto): Figure Composition draws inspiration from the historic Rakuchū-Rakugai-zu, paintings that documented the landscapes, architecture, and daily life of Kyoto from the Muromachi through the Edo periods. Rather than recreating these historical scenes, Yuki Koyano uses their visual structure as a contemporary stage, where figures from his Figure Composition series and the recurring character ONYO CHAN, a character embodying the hybrid nature of contemporary culture, inhabit the same pictorial space.

This convergence of historical imagery and contemporary imagination gives rise to new narratives, inviting viewers to move between past and present, tradition and invention. Rather than relying on the modern concept of Nihonga, Koyano takes as his point of departure the diverse approaches to painting that had evolved in Japan before the term itself was established, reinterpreting them through a contemporary lens.