Yutaka Aoki

Yutaka Aoki expands the scope of painting through an examination of the relationship between painting and the surrounding world, and of the many possibilities that are born from that exchange. Employing multiple techniques, Aoki’s gaze is always on the study of light and its three-dimensional quality. Supplemented by transformations engendered by specific elements in the environment, including the passage of time, the presence of an audience, and the nature of the exhibition space, light imbues his work with an organic richness, providing a visual experience that awakens the natural human senses desensitized by our increasingly digital lives. Yutaka Aoki was born in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, in 1985, and is currently based in Tokyo. In 2008, he graduated from Tokyo Zokei University’s Department of Fine Arts, and received a Master of Fine Arts from the same institution in 2010. He has presented major solo exhibitions which include “multiprime” (hiromiyoshii, Tokyo, 2011), “OUTER ROOM, INNER GARDEN” (Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, 2012), and “Mouvements” (Sprout Curation, Tokyo, 2014). Notable group exhibitions include “The Way of Painting” (Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, 2014), “CHOKOKU: Modern Japanese Sculpture from its Beginning to 1980’s, Works from the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo” (Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, 2019), and “A Personal View of Japanese Contemporary Art: Takahashi Ryutaro Collection” (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2024). In addition to the collection of the Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, Aoki’s works have been acquired by the Takahashi Ryutaro Collection.