Yota Yamaguchi
Yota Yamaguchi makes paintings that superimpose landscapes from around the world with the people who inhabit them. His work brings together figure and setting as a way of considering the visual and cultural specificity of different places. Although the region and ethnicity represented in each piece may change, the combination of human presence and landscape remains constant.
Yamaguchi is drawn to art because it gives him a direct way to express himself. He values both the conceptual development behind a work and the sense of completion that comes with finishing it. This balance between preparation and execution shapes his approach across media.
He selects materials according to the needs of each subject, but watercolor on paper remains his most familiar and frequently used medium. Watercolor also makes each work a sustained technical exercise. A significant mistake can require him to begin again, so completing a painting requires patience, time, and close attention. That difficulty is part of the satisfaction he finds in the process.
“Every piece is challenging,” Yamaguchi explains. Working through errors, rather than abandoning a painting at the first setback, helps him improve both the individual work and his broader skills as an artist.
The figures in Yamaguchi’s paintings are not detached from their surroundings. Clothing, regional histories, and landscape are considered together. He has developed a cohesive series by combining figures and landscapes while referencing the origins and histories of dress. The result is a body of work that attends to people, culture, and nature without treating them as separate subjects.
A central principle of the practice is respect for difference. Yamaguchi’s work rejects the idea that one race or culture is inherently superior to another, instead emphasizing the value of distinct identities and lived traditions. He hopes viewers will recognize the appeal of the many identities that coexist around the world.
Living in an international city gives him regular access to different cultures and communities. When he develops a work connected to a particular region, he can consult directly with people who have roots there. Travel has also been important. Encounters with people and daily life abroad helped establish the international scope of his current work.
His process is structured around concentration and attention to mood. Before beginning a painting, he chooses scents and music that suit its theme, using both to help regulate his emotional state and enter the work more fully. He generally paints during daylight hours, walks after the sun sets, and uses the evening to prepare for the next day or develop new concepts.
Inspiration often comes from visual confusion or association. Yamaguchi compares this to seeing animal shapes in clouds: when one image appears to resemble another, he notes the experience as possible material for future work. A walk can therefore become both a break from the studio and a source of new forms.
He does not try to force inspiration during periods of uncertainty. Instead, he works patiently, allowing problems and their solutions to become clear over time. “Rather than persistently chasing after inspiration,” he says, “I prefer to wait always prepared so inspiration comes to me on its own.”
Yamaguchi measures success by his ability to retain the pleasure of making art and to continue working throughout his life. Fame and financial success may follow, but he does not consider them useful starting points for a practice. His priority is to stay committed to his own beliefs and intuition rather than adapting too quickly to external trends.
His long-term goal is to exhibit paintings of diverse people from around the world together in one venue. He is also interested in expanding beyond painting and eventually developing an installation with the help of an artist who specializes in three-dimensional forms. For now, he continues to build the visual and conceptual foundation of that future project through works that join landscape, figure, and cultural observation.
Translated by Pearl Alexander.
