Yamatane, pigmented earth on gallery walls

Yusuke Asai is a Japanese artist whose work emulates the traditional and folk art styles of many different cultures, often in the form of large-scale drawings that often take up entire rooms in galleries or outdoor spaces. Aside from a high-school ceramics course, Asai is a self-taught artist, and it’s lovely to see his own personal explorations and research coming to fruition in his works.

Sprouting Life in the Forest - Fatherly Tree, Motherly Mountain, soil, water and acrylic on walls

In some of his room-wide installations, Asai uses soil or natural clay as a medium. This results in an image composed of deep, earthy tones – browns, tans and oranges – that lends an aged look to the walls. These paintings remind me in colour of ancient ceramics with intricate designs painted on them.

A more recent work of Asai’s features designs painted in blue on strips of canvas that are then stretched across a gallery space, from floor to ceiling, like a spiders web. The blue designs are like what one might see on fine china dishes, recalling the images of birds, plants and water.

Creating Here, canvas, marker and paper installation