Nurturing Paintings

aaploit presents Nurturing Paintings, a solo exhibition by Inoue Yukari, on view from April 26 through May 12, 2024. Inoue runs a painting class while actively pursuing her own painting practice. In recent years, she has undertaken a project titled "Nurturing Paintings"—an initiative to complete a large-scale work over the course of ten years.

The work measures 324 × 810 cm and is composed of ten canvases. Through dialogue-based viewing workshops, participants discuss what they feel when looking at the painted motifs and what should be added. The artist selects ideas that emerge from these conversations and incorporates them into the painting. Workshops have been held at middle schools, universities, and various communities. Sometimes only a portion of the large work is present at a workshop. To confirm the full picture and to report on its growth, the artist plans annual workshops each July at Natsukari Warehouse, where the complete work can be viewed.

The commitment to ten years and the practice of sourcing motifs through workshops originated from Inoue's desire to experiment with bringing motifs from outside her own practice. The final form is unpredictable—not only for workshop participants, but for Inoue herself. The project continues as an exhibition of a painting's growth process. Inoue sought motifs from workshops out of a wish to cultivate a relationship with painting. In making paintings, is the completed work simply the painter's ego? This question led to the concept of nurturing paintings by bringing motifs from elsewhere.

This exhibition features works of various sizes. We invite viewers to imagine spaces and lives with paintings in them.

For inquiries regarding the exhibition and works, please contact info@aaploit.com.