Press Reviews
VC Reporter | On Exhibit | March 20, 2014 by
Claudia Pardo
Hiroko Yoshimoto, a local artistic force to be reckoned with, presents a solo exhibition of her recent paintings at the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard.
Yoshimoto’s recognizable figurative style has been replaced by an explicitly abstract body of work that the artist began two years ago. Derived from free-form sketches that she created in watercolor and colored ink while in Japan, “Biodiversity” speaks of Yoshimoto’s strong desire to see the perpetuation of nature’s diversity in the face of the destruction caused by human hands. These initial sketches suggest paintings in their own right, and Yoshimoto’s keen understanding of color attests to that. Most of the sketches are on display at the museum.
After retiring from a career in art education that spanned more than 30 years, Yoshimoto continues to be a relevant artist. She is continually inspired by her surroundings and personal observations of current environmental changes. Thoughts stirred by issues such as human-caused extinction; air, land and water pollution; habitat encroachment; poaching and more are at the root of the inspiration for Yoshimoto’s latest body of work. The artist read several books by ecologists and biologists, including Edward O. Wilson, which fueled her original concepts into full-fledged paintings.
The result is a series of controlled explosions of colors and shapes, teeming with lines of varying widths and lengths and peppered with scribbles, specks, dots and streaks. Delicate organic contours intersect jagged, jarring and geometric lines, creating an animated surface of what seems like a living organism. There is an underlying structure to the abstract chaos: Meticulously drawn lines and purposeful swirls float amid the vibrant topography of Yohimoto’s surfaces.
Some of the work is reminiscent of a close view of life underwater. Although the artist doesn’t make direct reference to scientific photography, her paintings seem clearly influenced by the observation of nature on a molecular level. Despite their beautiful execution and grand aesthetic appeal, each painting is modestly numbered. This works to the exhibit’s advantage as it deters the viewer from seeking “guidance” from the title, a common crutch when viewing abstract work. The viewer is left to experience each exuberant painting with no reference to a title.
The paintings are robust and vibrant, sensual and rich. Some are of grand scale, nearing 8 feet in height (Yoshimoto used a stepladder to tackle the larger pieces, which caused her a shoulder injury that set her back three months.) What’s most compelling about the work is the subtle communication of, most likely, Yoshimoto’s propensity for a tinge of the psychedelic (most likely unbeknown to her). If you pictured a magnified cell of a living organism, you’d see wandering tendrils and twisting strands, amorphous shapes and organic forms, rigid and snake-like lines. Now, if you were to add some comic book sound effects and lettering — BLAM! POW! WHAM! — you’d arrive at the bulk of the work. Biodiversity exemplifies something: the relevance and appeal of pattern within chaos. The artist’s concerns about the conservation of diversity are palpable, yet disguised by the utter guilty pleasure of looking at her paintings. Yoshimoto shines as an abstract painter of vast technical ability and exceptional imaginative resources.
“Biodiversity” at the Carnegie Art Museum through May 18. 424 S. C St., Oxnard. 385-8158 or www.carnegieam.org.
Hiroko Yoshimoto, a local artistic force to be reckoned with, presents a solo exhibition of her recent paintings at the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard.
Yoshimoto’s recognizable figurative style has been replaced by an explicitly abstract body of work that the artist began two years ago. Derived from free-form sketches that she created in watercolor and colored ink while in Japan, “Biodiversity” speaks of Yoshimoto’s strong desire to see the perpetuation of nature’s diversity in the face of the destruction caused by human hands. These initial sketches suggest paintings in their own right, and Yoshimoto’s keen understanding of color attests to that. Most of the sketches are on display at the museum.
After retiring from a career in art education that spanned more than 30 years, Yoshimoto continues to be a relevant artist. She is continually inspired by her surroundings and personal observations of current environmental changes. Thoughts stirred by issues such as human-caused extinction; air, land and water pollution; habitat encroachment; poaching and more are at the root of the inspiration for Yoshimoto’s latest body of work. The artist read several books by ecologists and biologists, including Edward O. Wilson, which fueled her original concepts into full-fledged paintings.
The result is a series of controlled explosions of colors and shapes, teeming with lines of varying widths and lengths and peppered with scribbles, specks, dots and streaks. Delicate organic contours intersect jagged, jarring and geometric lines, creating an animated surface of what seems like a living organism. There is an underlying structure to the abstract chaos: Meticulously drawn lines and purposeful swirls float amid the vibrant topography of Yohimoto’s surfaces.
Some of the work is reminiscent of a close view of life underwater. Although the artist doesn’t make direct reference to scientific photography, her paintings seem clearly influenced by the observation of nature on a molecular level. Despite their beautiful execution and grand aesthetic appeal, each painting is modestly numbered. This works to the exhibit’s advantage as it deters the viewer from seeking “guidance” from the title, a common crutch when viewing abstract work. The viewer is left to experience each exuberant painting with no reference to a title.
The paintings are robust and vibrant, sensual and rich. Some are of grand scale, nearing 8 feet in height (Yoshimoto used a stepladder to tackle the larger pieces, which caused her a shoulder injury that set her back three months.) What’s most compelling about the work is the subtle communication of, most likely, Yoshimoto’s propensity for a tinge of the psychedelic (most likely unbeknown to her). If you pictured a magnified cell of a living organism, you’d see wandering tendrils and twisting strands, amorphous shapes and organic forms, rigid and snake-like lines. Now, if you were to add some comic book sound effects and lettering — BLAM! POW! WHAM! — you’d arrive at the bulk of the work. Biodiversity exemplifies something: the relevance and appeal of pattern within chaos. The artist’s concerns about the conservation of diversity are palpable, yet disguised by the utter guilty pleasure of looking at her paintings. Yoshimoto shines as an abstract painter of vast technical ability and exceptional imaginative resources.
“Biodiversity” at the Carnegie Art Museum through May 18. 424 S. C St., Oxnard. 385-8158 or www.carnegieam.org.
Los Angeles Times | Arts & Entertainment | June 15, 1995 review by Josef Woodard
SIGHTS: Powerful Impression Created With Simple, Elegant Structure: Hiroko Yoshimoto's 'Four Seasons' is a series of narrative paintings that have a spiritual quality.
“For some years now, Hiroko Yoshimoto has been a prized asset to the Ventura art community, as a teacher at Ventura College and a thoughtful artist. There is often more than meets the eye with her work, entailing conceptual streams of thought beneath the purely visual allure.
That is certainly the case with her current show at Ventura College in a too-short run ending Friday. Yoshimoto, who has been on sabbatical this school year, showed her installation titled “Four Seasons” in Tokyo and Osaka last fall, and brings a smaller version of the show to the two separate galleries on the Ventura College campus.
Yoshimoto’s show – really a cohesive installation piece rather than a series of separate artworks – takes up two galleries and yet, like much of her work, has a lightness of being and a sense of calm focus that belied the scale. This ability has served her theatrical set designs well in the past.
In an artist’s statement, Yoshimoto calls the exhibition, correctly, a “conceptual narrative painting installation” connected to the “theme of the powerful creative forces that are passed on from one generation to another.”
She painted four of her female relatives, who were between 18 and 90, in a mode
of unpretentious portraits, in profile and with sparse artifacts and décor, hang at intervals between the larger part of the show – a series of semi-abstract oil-on-paper panels, 50 in all.
Big, bold, and yet also delicate in feeling, the panels are set up in a mosaic or horizontal, long, puzzle-like fashion. Oblong color forms suggesting flower petals or other natural phenomena are pushed toward abstraction by the use of nearly flat, primary colors and by the fragmented arrangement of the panels.
These panels are sequential, telling a kind of visual story, given rhythm by the segmentation of the installation. Colors shift according to the seasonal flow, and the cycle continues in a loop as you proceed around the walls from one gallery to the next.
The portraits of women, in profile, serve as signposts along the path, the human, personal element contrasting and interweaving with the more nature-oriented, abstract material. It all hangs together, literally, a projection of life cycles.
Yoshimoto’s work here is a rarity: a conceptual installation of almost guileless simplicity and instantly appreciable elegance. Her sense of overall structure and attention to telling details – such as the carefully chosen objects and settings for her subjects – add up to a quietly spiritual, yet powerful viewing experience.”
SIGHTS: Powerful Impression Created With Simple, Elegant Structure: Hiroko Yoshimoto's 'Four Seasons' is a series of narrative paintings that have a spiritual quality.
“For some years now, Hiroko Yoshimoto has been a prized asset to the Ventura art community, as a teacher at Ventura College and a thoughtful artist. There is often more than meets the eye with her work, entailing conceptual streams of thought beneath the purely visual allure.
That is certainly the case with her current show at Ventura College in a too-short run ending Friday. Yoshimoto, who has been on sabbatical this school year, showed her installation titled “Four Seasons” in Tokyo and Osaka last fall, and brings a smaller version of the show to the two separate galleries on the Ventura College campus.
Yoshimoto’s show – really a cohesive installation piece rather than a series of separate artworks – takes up two galleries and yet, like much of her work, has a lightness of being and a sense of calm focus that belied the scale. This ability has served her theatrical set designs well in the past.
In an artist’s statement, Yoshimoto calls the exhibition, correctly, a “conceptual narrative painting installation” connected to the “theme of the powerful creative forces that are passed on from one generation to another.”
She painted four of her female relatives, who were between 18 and 90, in a mode
of unpretentious portraits, in profile and with sparse artifacts and décor, hang at intervals between the larger part of the show – a series of semi-abstract oil-on-paper panels, 50 in all.
Big, bold, and yet also delicate in feeling, the panels are set up in a mosaic or horizontal, long, puzzle-like fashion. Oblong color forms suggesting flower petals or other natural phenomena are pushed toward abstraction by the use of nearly flat, primary colors and by the fragmented arrangement of the panels.
These panels are sequential, telling a kind of visual story, given rhythm by the segmentation of the installation. Colors shift according to the seasonal flow, and the cycle continues in a loop as you proceed around the walls from one gallery to the next.
The portraits of women, in profile, serve as signposts along the path, the human, personal element contrasting and interweaving with the more nature-oriented, abstract material. It all hangs together, literally, a projection of life cycles.
Yoshimoto’s work here is a rarity: a conceptual installation of almost guileless simplicity and instantly appreciable elegance. Her sense of overall structure and attention to telling details – such as the carefully chosen objects and settings for her subjects – add up to a quietly spiritual, yet powerful viewing experience.”