Y ui Yaegashi makes paintings using a self-imposed system of rules to create a composition. The artist focuses more on how the paintings will be made, rather than what they will look like, but so far has been producing paintings that are abstract. Yaegashi begins by deciding the size and composition of the work, the color and texture of the paint, what tools to use, and the order for putting paint on the canvas. The works are composed with horizontal and vertical lines on a plane, and eschew curvilinear forms that could be reminiscent of real objects or things, focusing the viewer’s attention solely on the system that produced it. She chooses to make works in a small size so that the viewer can visually enter the painting, and closely examine the layering of paint.*
An exhibition of new work by Yaegashi is in its final week at Queer Thoughts.
Through May 22.
Queer Thoughts
373 Broadway, #C9, New York City.
Yui Yaegashi, Queer Thoughts, April 8, 2021–May 22, 2021, from top: untitled, 2020, oil on canvas; white, 2021, oil on canvas; black-LVS, 2020, oil on canvas; black-S, 2021, oil on canvas; a land, 2020, oil on canvas; black-V, 2021, oil on canvas; from New Year’s Card, 2020, oil on canvas; untitled, 2020, oil on canvas. Images © Yui Yaegashi, courtesy of the artist and Queer Thoughts.
