Nowhere Land

biscuit gallery (Shinjuku) will hold a solo exhibition “Nowhere Land” by contemporary artist Miyu Yamada.
The exhibition runs from October 11 (Saturday) to October 26 (Sunday).

An opening party with the artist in attendance will be held on the first day, October 11 (Saturday) from 16:00-19:00.

「Nowhere Land」 Acrylic, sand, and mixed media on canvas 2025 162cm×130.3cm

This exhibition marks the first show at the new Shinjuku space following biscuit gallery’s relocation, and comes two years after the artist’s previous solo exhibition.

The correct answer changes depending on one’s point of view, and nothing is fixed to a single truth. I feel that my own sensibilities and artworks emerge within this shifting uncertainty.

Since moving my residence within Tokyo, I began seeking out places that offer quiet tranquility. I realized during last year’s travels that I was searching for such places. I visited Mount Shasta in America, and some of my works were influenced by that landscape, but I don’t intend to imbue specific place names or locations with particular meaning. Rather, I have come to feel that if there exists “a place of calm reassurance like Shasta” somewhere within one’s heart, then one can face anything. I hold this realization.

The boundaries between others and oneself are sometimes ambiguous, and we simultaneously carry relief, anxiety, and fear. Yet rather than treating these with irony or denial, I wish to gather them together as warmth.

Creating artworks is not always something outside of life; rather, they gain meaning through being in tension with daily life. Our lives cannot be completely separated from society. Just as the soil in fields connects beyond their boundaries, I too am woven into society. In contemporary society where excessive connection and isolation occur simultaneously, and in urban life exposed to comparison and scrutiny, I am constantly asked: how much distance to maintain, and how to engage while inclining toward isolation yet inevitably enveloped by society.

Creating artworks is often interpreted as a message to society. But for me, it is closer to a letter or postcard addressed to someone specific. By leaving behind small voices and thoughts, I wish for them to reach someone I have yet to meet.

Miyu Yamada

Artist Profile

Miyu Yamada | 山田 美優

Born 1994, Tokyo
Graduate of Aoyama Gakuin University, Faculty of Law

She creates works that project individuals living between the gaps of the times and social currents. Capturing the unique sense of floating and elusive quality that contemporary people possess, she employs sand-like materials as an intermediate existence between the urban and natural worlds.
She develops a series where lines are built up and drawn from drawings, as well as works using pastels.
The living creatures that appear are depicted simultaneously as reflections of herself observing society intersecting with rapidly changing times, and as the viewer themselves.

View detailed profile here

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