On October 6th, Japanese artist Yukimasa Ida will be opening his first international solo show in collaboration with art dealer Justin Cook. Bespoke, his first major show outside of Asia, will be installed for a week at the Labassa Woolfe shop in London’s Fitzrovia and will include works exclusively painted for this exhibition.
Coming from an artistic family, Ida started showing interest for painting at very young age and went to study oil painting and contemporary art at the Tokyo University of the Arts. After the invitation to be one of nine artists to create work for the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation auction earlier this year, major Japanese collectors started recognizing his talent.
His work is built around the idea of Ichi-go ichi-e, a Japanese cultural concept of treasuring and saving once-in-a-lifetime moments. Skillful in diverse styles of painting, the exhibition will include oils that range from abstraction to expressive realism mostly painted during his two visits to the UK. From vigorous brush work, distinctive color choices, to thick layers of vibrant pigments, his paintings often deconstruct the subject while accenting its crucial elements. Inspired by his childhood in the Japanese countryside, as well as the urban life around him, Ida turns people, animals, things and events into motifs for his work, while treasuring the concept of Ichi-go ichi-e.
