8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery is pleased to present a two-person exhibition by Taishi Nishi and Yosuke Yano, young artists based in Kyoto.

Taishi Nishi was born in 1983 in Osaka. After graduating from a Master’s course at the Department of Painting, Graduate School of Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts, Nishi received the Grand Prize from the Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2015 and was selected at the Shell Art Award 2016. Black lines of charcoal and paint permeate Nishi’s canvas, reflecting the artist’s attempt of capturing the moments of contemporary life amidst the chaotic society we live in. Influenced by Francisco José de Goya’s Black Paintings series, Nishi depicts sceneries where actual events and fiction coalesce with one other, through them inviting viewers to a mysterious and uncanny world. This exhibition also features his sculptural work, with which the artist feels that he is “able to shorten the distance between paintings and reality”.

Yosuke Yano was born in 1989 in Kyoto. While he studied at a Master’s course in Urushi Lacquering, Department of Crafts, Graduate School of Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts, Yano started working with plain wood due to his fascination with the rich expressions its harbored. In his works that are composed through affixing different kinds of wood together, each piece appears as if naturally connected, also depicting gentle expressions reminiscent of nuts and fallen leaves. His series of heads with unique shapes engage with wood’s natural texture, knotholes, and cracks, demonstrating a sense of intimacy between the artist and wood.

The exhibition title “Thorn of Comfort” suggests the way in which the two artists question the tendency of valuing comfort. Viewers are invited to encounter each artist’s original expressions that are conceived through their confrontation and exploration of contradictory sensations and impressions.