Yokosuka is a Japanese city just two hours by train South of Tokyo. Not dissimilar to Monaco, it is surrounded by the sea on one side and hills on the other. This is where Japanese artist Yu Nishimura’s studio is located and from where his work soaks its inspiration. Both urban and natural landscape reflected onto the sea as well as contrast between the warmth of the sun and the cool December air creates a specific ambiance. Nishimura observes it and reflects in paintings the whole spectrums of emotions – embracing sadness, isolation, melancholy as well as joy, serenity or even a happy state of contemplation.
La Società delle Api (The Bee Society) hosts the first solo exhibition in Monaco by Yu Nishimura. With the title “December Light”, Yu Nishimura’s paintings depict an everyday environment with his specific ability to bring out the light that emanates from the surfaces.
‘Bird Sleeping with Citrus’, 2021 by Yu Nishimura. Collection Silvia Fiorucci, Monaco
“For me it is important to have a story in the show so we begin with the view from the seaside and slowly move the narrative in order to follow the path that is included in his work”, says the curator of the exhibition, Oriane Durand. “The artist is standing and looking around or taking a walk, which is a metaphor for time, we follow his gaze and we pause in the moment in the December Light.”
This is the second time Oriane Durand curates Nishimura’s work, the previous exhibition was held in Cologne and the artist, born in 1982, is already well known in Paris where most of his work is presented at the Crèvecœur Gallery which made most of the work presented available for this exhibition.
Monaco-based entrepreneur and founder of La Società delle Api, Silvia Fiorucci, is also a collector of contemporary art and design and she has a few Nishimura paintings in her own collection – those completed the exhibition that opened at Le QUAI 8, quai Antoine 1er, 4th floor on Friday, November 17 and will run until January 19, 2024, by appointment only. To book a visit, please write to contact@lasocietadelleapi.mc.
Featured image: exhibition curator Oriane Durand (left), La Società delle Api founder Silvia Fiorucci (right), all images courtesy of Pierre Morel / La Società delle Api
