Coral red Gekkoso, Kusakabe and Matsuda Super 2016

Yui Yaegashi made this painting called ‘Coral red Gekkoso, Kusakabe and Matsuda Super’ using coral red paint, obviously, and with a method that emphasizes the act of artmaking. The surface has a very particular quality to it: we see the individual brushstrokes layering on top of each other, building up the image, as if each stroke is a carefully considered decision. You get the sense that Yaegashi is relishing in the physicality of the medium. Look at the broad horizontal strokes that make up the lower register of the painting, each one leaving a trace of the artist’s hand. There’s a lovely sense of rhythm and repetition to be found here, too, which reminds me a little bit of Agnes Martin. But where Martin aimed for a certain transcendence through the grid, Yaegashi seems more interested in a conversation, a dialogue with painting itself. These paintings invite us to slow down and engage in a visual give-and-take.