YUKINE YANAGI(b. 1998, Tokyo) is a painter currently living and working in Rhode Island. She holds a BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI). Recently, she presented solo exhibitions at parrasch heijnen (Los Angeles, CA) and G/ART/EN Gallery (Como, Italy), and group exhibitions at Analog Diary (Beacon, NY), Latitude Gallery New York (NYC, NY), and SPY Projects (Los Angeles, CA).

My paintings are about our intuitive connection with the natural world: how we fear it, worship it, shape it, and learn from it. Inspired by Eastern spirituality and modern ecological thinking, Nature is presented as both landscape and body: it is an animate subject with a body engaging in visualized, inherently unseen, forces. I am particularly inspired by the symbiotic processes found in the forest, such as the mycorrhiza network that connects fungi and roots of individual trees to relay information on a cellular level. Representing the concept of the forest as systems or a superorganism seeks an understanding about our own interconnectivity, and our human connection with the souls of the natural world and the responsibilities that come with this innate coexistence.

The process of painting is both an obsession with the alchemy of paint and a spiritual journey with my subject. With an intentional image in mind but actively responding to the process of painting and abstraction, I sift through and collect hints and details of contrasting elements within the material to find added meaning and personality of each painting. Paint and pigment are wiped, sanded, covered, over and over again until I’m able to strip down the layers to reveal the elemental: form, light, and color that translate the essence of natural subjects. I’m interested in edges that transition and merge, dissolving the boundaries between a perceived body and environment. The process of building the image leaves its trace, showing a struggle between the forces of construction and destruction–– digging into muddy overworked paint just to find a new passage of light.

YUKINE YANAGI
Lives and works in Providence, RI.

Education

2016-2020 BFA Painting, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Providence, RI

2019 RISD European Honors Program (EHP), Semester long residency, Rome, Italy

One-Person Exhibitions

2025 Silent Sonata, parrasch heijnen, Los Angeles, CA

2023 The Ultraviolet Principle, G/ART/EN Gallery, Como, Italy

Selected Group Exhibitions

2025 Dallas Invitational, parrasch heijnen, Dallas, TX

Felix LA, Franklin Parrasch, Los Angeles, CA

2024 Long Walk Off a Short Pier: Abstraction and the Afterlife, Analog Diary, Beacon, NY

2023 Red Thread, co-curated by Anne-Laure Lemaitre, Latitude Gallery New York, New York, NY