 Yuriko Yamaguchi The Trees are Humming September 8th, 2023 – November 11, 2023  Barbara Davis Gallery is pleased to announce The Trees are Humming, a solo exhibition by Yuriko Yamaguchi, opening Friday, September 8th, 2023 from 6:30 – 8:30pm at 4411 Montrose. With a delicate hand and a gentle spirit, Yuriko Yamaguchi invites communion with the natural world around us. It is easy to become lost in her metaphorical forest, discovering soft intricacies that blend the artificial with the natural — the man-made with what is born from the earth. Yamaguchi twists together hand-cast resin, paper pulp, and steel wire to create forms and structures that seem to narrate their own stories. She works without a plan — the material must whisper to her and tell her how it is meant to live. With such an intuitive process, her work reaches into naturalistic directions, leaving the viewer to wonder what biome originated such forms. Her sculpture is concerned with the relationship between space and material, between transparency and density, and between texture and absence. It is far too easy to get distracted by the artificial things we live with, but it is important to remember that we are part of nature. Yamaguchi encourages the viewer to consider this by exploring the atmosphere she curates; look at, look through, and look within the sculpture.  In The Trees are Humming, Yamaguchi’s sculpture invites the viewer in. Web #8 hangs like it is floating, a suspended explosion that practically buzzes with energy. It is a held breath in a frozen moment, its wire branching and interconnected like roots put on display. And yet, it is just a hint of what is to come once the viewer wanders into Whisper. Aptly named, this installation calls to the viewer, asks them to find peace in a meditative space. The silk thread shimmers like a summer shower, refreshing and soft. It ripples and rustles in the mind’s eye like a forest full of Quaking Aspen. It stands still and delicate like the lines of Sugar Maple in the winter. It is bleached coral, gasping. It is a network of synapses, sparking. Whatever it becomes to the viewer, it is living, and it is touching. This installation is the result of the never-fully-answered questions Yamaguchi asks herself that motivate her work — “Who am I? Where am I going?” To her, her work is the “culmination of what [she] will be; it is born and will return to the earth.” Come and experience this ever-morphing exhibition by the profound Yuriko Yamaguchi, and find who you are and where you are going. The Trees are Humming — and they will continue to hum long after we find our destinationessay by Laura Semro ABOUT BARBARA DAVIS GALLERY For 42 years, Barbara Davis Gallery has brought groundbreaking contemporary art to Houston. Driven by her intuitive sensibilities and perennially fresh vision, Barbara Davis has championed a generation of significant contemporary artists. In the process she has challenged a generation of art collectors, both seasoned and aspiring, to see the beauty and value in their work through dialogs and panel discussions with prominent museum curators and artists from across genres. She has launched the careers of international artists such as Julie Mehretu, one of the most important contemporary artists of our time, and Andrea Bianconi, who has become an international figure in the contemporary art scene, having given Mehretu her first gallery exhibition and Bianconi his first U.S. exhibition. She was also one of the first to bring to Houston the influential names of Joseph Beuys, Kiki Smith, Louis Bourgeois, Jonathan Borofsky, Günther Förg, Allan McCollum, Gilbert & George, Chuck Close, Robert Longo, Sally Mann, Jenny Holzer, Sam Gilliam, Jessica Stockholder, John Baldessari and Elizabeth Peyton among many others. She has brought progressive international exhibitions such as Leipzig Select, artists from the New Leipzig School, and exhibitions for Beijing East Village artists Zhang Huan and Li Wei. Barbara Davis Gallery was one of the first Texas galleries to be included in the influential and prestigious Art Basel Miami Beach art fair. The gallery’s exhibitions have been reviewed in international publications such as ArtForum, Art in America, Art News, Flash Art International, The Art Economist, and The New York Times among many others. Her passion for exhibiting innovative contemporary art and her commitment to educating her collectors and the community has driven the focus of the gallery for 42 years. |
Yuriko Yamaguchi | Artist & Sculptor 