Yuko Someya “Soil and Stars”

Tomio Koyama Gallery Kyobashi is pleased to present Yuko Someya’s solo exhibition “Soil and Stars.” This marks the artist’s sixth solo exhibition—and their first in two years—with the gallery, showcasing a collection centered around new works.

【About the Exhibition and the Exhibited Works: Soil and Stars, Life in the Valley】

In recent years, Yuko Someya relocated her home and studio to Okayama Prefecture. The area in which she resides, known as “Hiokidani” (日置谷), translates literally to “sun-placed valley” (with the character 日 meaning “sun,” 置 meaning “to place/put,” and 谷 meaning “valley”). This exhibition presents works that the artist created while living among those mountains and valleys, and while grounded in the earth’s soil.

Yuko Someya is an artist who has developed a unique and new style of expression, intertwining familiar landscapes with memories from her own childhood, experiences of lie changes, and fundamental aspects of life, such as death, birth, and nature. Her fantastical artworks, where various flora and fauna intermingle, in all their vibrancy could be described as contemporary renditions of the traditional bird-and-flower painting. However, the new works presented in this exhibition, while building upon those past expressions, were born from an engagement with nature that far transcends the artist’s own imagination.

“Since I started my vegetable garden, I have become acutely aware of the sky. I feel an intimate closeness to every living thing above and beneath the soil, while simultaneously sensing an overwhelming distance opening up between us.
I’ve come to realize that it’s much like gazing at the stars or peering into deep space.
It’s right there before my eyes, yet I cannot see anything of what I truly wish to know.
I’m always lost, still with no idea where to place the dots.
I’ve started to think that a whole cosmic, multidimensional world is unfolding even beneath the soil.”

Living together with the soil, Someya states that she began to imagine that “there might be a connection between what happens in the soil and how the light of the stars reaches our eyes.”

Furthermore, the artist has provided the following comments regarding her two large-scale works presented in the exhibition.

Circulating Soil, 2026, 202 x 400 cm, Chinese ink, watercolor on paper

A four-legged creature lay dead in the grass.
Just inches from its carcass—where countless maggots swarmed and writhed over its flesh—vibrant greenery burst forth in abundance. Meanwhile, butterflies floated soundlessly around the still-lush grasses and flowers that had been mowed and cast aside to nourish the coming soil.
Although it was a truly beautiful place, the overwhelming stench of decay compelled me to leave at once.

Bisei-cho, 2026、230 x 420 cm, Chinese ink, watercolor on paper

Looking up at the starry sky and the universe stretching beyond it in the town of Bisei, where the darkness of the night is cherished, I feel liberated from the confines of human existence, allowing a pure, unclouded beauty to surface.
At the same time, this deeply frightens me.

The exhibition reveals the sincere dedication of the artist, who strives to translate into their work, a profound sense of reality born from a keen sensibility cultivated through living in harmony with nature.
We hope visitors will take this opportunity to witness Someya’s latest artistic endeavors. 

【About the Changes in Production Methods】

Until now, Someya’s production process involved tracing intricate preliminary drawings—which could be regarded as blueprints of sorts—onto Japanese paper (washi) and coloring them; then assembling these variously sized parts on canvas, building up the composition in multiple layers and adding details in pencil or Chinese ink to complete the work.

Someya describes Japanese paper—a material she has engaged with for many years—as challenging to handle and paint upon, yet precisely for that reason, is fascinating and captivating. For her new works, she has moved away from using blueprint-like preliminary drawings and her customary process of assembling the composition on canvas; instead, the Japanese paper itself serves as the support. As a result, the natural wrinkles and textures of the paper, which were previously smoothed out and lost when mounted on canvas, are preserved directly in the work.

This shift in production method also had a significant impact on the scale of her work. Freed from the constraints of canvas shape and size, her works have evolved into large-scale pieces that fill the studio space, with motifs such as soil, stars, and trees unfolding more freely and expansively across the picture plane. The experience of completing these major works—the largest she had produced to date—enabled her to perceive the act of painting more freely, leading her to return to painting for the first time in 21 years.

This change is likely rooted in the artist’s new surroundings following her relocation. The lush, natural environment, where mountains and rice fields unfold the moment one opens the door, has brought a fresh sense of space to the artist’s mind. While building on the foundation of her past experience marked by meticulous and tension-filled construction, the artist is gradually freeing herself from the need to exert strict control over the production process, allowing her expression to expand into something more flexible and open. These new works indeed reflect that inner transformation through a sense of spatial expansiveness and openness.

【About Yuko Someya】

Yuko Someya was born in 1980 in Chiba Prefecture. She completed her Master’s degree in printmaking at Tokyo University of Arts, the Department of Art, in 2006. Selected solo exhibitions include “I See You in the Wild Flowers” (Tomio Koyama Gallery Tennoz, Tokyo, 2024) and “Yuko Someya” (Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 2014); selected group exhibitions include “All Living Things” (Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Shizuoka, 2016). In 2004, her works received the Acquisition Award / Audience Award at The Annual Exhibition of the Japan Society of Printmaking held at Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts (Tokyo) and were subsequently added to the museum’s collection. In 2014, she was awarded the “VOCA ‘14” Encouragement Prize.