Untitled (Winter Trees), 2012

Nature, with in all its various characteristics and planes ofand expressiveness, along with a limited variety of colour tones fluctuations, are the main attributes of Yuko Murata's work. Each individual painting she produces, makes a skilful use of her command of shade and light. She allows the canvas to naturally flow towards its subject matter, while maintaining a necessary balance with its elementary constituents. This juxtaposition gives Murata's works, an air of wistful mournfulness which is subtly perceptible in all her productions. She is well versed in both Western and Japanese artistic traditions and techniques, and uses her cultural heritage as a starting point, to mine for inspiration through modern media. Magazines, catalogues, booklets, advertising provide an endless background of material for her to explore and use in her paintings. Murata was born in Japan in 1972 and studied art in Tokyo. Although her stylistic approach to painting is schooled in the Western tradition, she is also deeply influenced by the 19th century classical Japanese tradition. Painters of that era were subjected to strict execution guidelines, making use of minimal resources regarding colours and conventional subject matter. There is a clear separation between Murata's life in modern Japan and the symbolism of the era which she deliberately chooses to reference in her work. However, she has clearly re-contextualised topics which once were purely ornamental and decorative in the Shinto tradition. Murata has thus created a new functional template for her paintings, which deeply reflect the loss inherent in the experience of modernity in contemporary Japan.