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Ulala Imai "Arcadia"
Nonaka-Hill, Kyoto
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Artists
Ulala Imai
Nonaka-Hill is proud to present ARCADIA, an exhibition of new paintings by Ulala Imai, to inaugurate our new gallery space located in the Gion district of Kyoto, Japan.
For her second solo exhibition with Nonaka-Hill, Ulala Imai embraces an illustrative term connected to Classical idealism. Imai’s ARCADIA honors the garden of her suburban Tokyo studio as a site of genesis, wonder and bucolic satisfaction, though not detached from eventualities of an evermore complex world:
Ulala Imai is renowned for her observational paintings of food, stuffed animals and popular toy characters, situated either in familiar domestic settings or varied landscapes (gardens, parks, forests or the Japanese coastline), depicted either alone or as ensemble tableaux. While Imai’s works pay homage to centuries old painting genres - the still-life, the heroic portrait, the bucolic landscape - rather than serving these (mostly) Western, art historical tropes, she upends the visual narrative through dramatic shifts of scale and subtle suggestion. In her paintings, Imai often pushes nature morte into a hybrid subgenre of her own making; less concerned with vanitas and its regular preoccupation with death and transience, but rather breathing life into static objects. Through her mastery of medium and technique, Imai’s works often appear luminescent, animating humble plates of food and well-worn playthings into a living theater, lionizing the imagery of her everyday life. The resultant paintings take on themes of proxied self-portraiture and portraiture, family and romantic relationships, harrowing adventure and existential bliss.
For her second solo exhibition with Nonaka-Hill, Ulala Imai embraces an illustrative term connected to Classical idealism. Imai’s ARCADIA honors the garden of her suburban Tokyo studio as a site of genesis, wonder and bucolic satisfaction, though not detached from eventualities of an evermore complex world:
Ulala Imai is renowned for her observational paintings of food, stuffed animals and popular toy characters, situated either in familiar domestic settings or varied landscapes (gardens, parks, forests or the Japanese coastline), depicted either alone or as ensemble tableaux. While Imai’s works pay homage to centuries old painting genres - the still-life, the heroic portrait, the bucolic landscape - rather than serving these (mostly) Western, art historical tropes, she upends the visual narrative through dramatic shifts of scale and subtle suggestion. In her paintings, Imai often pushes nature morte into a hybrid subgenre of her own making; less concerned with vanitas and its regular preoccupation with death and transience, but rather breathing life into static objects. Through her mastery of medium and technique, Imai’s works often appear luminescent, animating humble plates of food and well-worn playthings into a living theater, lionizing the imagery of her everyday life. The resultant paintings take on themes of proxied self-portraiture and portraiture, family and romantic relationships, harrowing adventure and existential bliss.
Schedule | Oct 30 (Wed) 2024-Dec 21 (Sat) 2024 Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception Oct 30 (Wed) 2024 16:00 - 20:00 | ||||
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Website | https://www.nonaka-hill.com/exhibitions/74-ulala-imai-arcadia/ | ||||
| Venue | Nonaka-Hill, Kyoto https://www.nonaka-hill.com/ | ||||
| Location | 201-4 Nishino-Cho, Shinmonzen-Dori, Higashiyama-Ku, Kyoto 605-0088 | ||||
| Access | 3 minute walk from exit 2 at Sanjo Station on the Keihan line, 4 minute walk from exit 9 at Gion-shijo Station on the Keihan line, 6 minute walk from exit 2 at Sanjo Keihan Station on the Tozai subway line, 8 minute walk from exit 1A at Kyoto-kawaramachi Station on the Hankyu line. | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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