Untitled 2017

Yui Yaegashi made this ‘Untitled’ painting sometime after she was born in 1985, probably with oil on canvas, but who knows? Look at how those horizontal lines just stack up, like a landscape seen through venetian blinds. And then those little vertical marks punctuate the surface, creating a delicate rhythm. It's all about the paint here – thin layers, built up slowly, almost like glazing, but with a kind of insistent, physical drag to it. It’s a conversation between control and chance. There’s an area in the lower left where the vertical marks are clustered, almost fighting for space. This tension, this density, seems to mirror the overall feeling of the painting; a quiet intensity, a hidden energy. Yaegashi reminds me of Agnes Martin in her commitment to quiet, meditative mark-making, but with a slightly more rebellious spirit, like she’s trying to break free from the grid, but not quite succeeding.