BIOGRAPHY

Yukari YAMADA is a contemporary artist based in Tokyo whose practice is guided by the concept “Find the Sparkling Moment in Life.” Working primarily through painting, alongside poetry, mixed media, and installation, she explores subtle moments of wonder in everyday life, traces of memory, emotions before they become words, and the invisible relationships that exist between people.

At the core of YAMADA’s practice is an ongoing inquiry into how the unseen can be perceived and given visible form.

In her abstract paintings, circles, lines, rectangles, arcs, organic forms, color, light, water, and negative space function as a visual language for emotion, memory, atmosphere, and human relationships. Her use of lines and circles developed from the idea that everything is composed of elements beyond ordinary sight, such as atoms and molecules, and that differences in density, concentration, and presence can be translated through straight and curved lines.

Rather than reproducing the visible world as it appears, YAMADA deconstructs what she perceives through memory and bodily sensation, then reconstructs it through line, color, form, and space. The resulting structures are not simply geometric patterns, but traces of emotional density, memory, relationships, and subtle sensations that often lose their contours within everyday life.

For YAMADA, abstraction is not an act of removing meaning from reality. It is a way of giving form again to what has become difficult to perceive precisely because it is so close to us.

Japanese poetry is also an integral part of her practice. Rather than explaining or fixing the meaning of a painting, the poems create an open space between image and language, allowing viewers to bring their own memories and emotions into the work.

One of the symbolic beings to emerge from YAMADA’s abstract language is Lyly, pronounced like “Lily.” The name is a coined term unique to her work. While retaining the familiar sound of Lily, it carries echoes of the flower and water, the poetic resonance of lyricism, and spirit as an expression of inner life and vitality.

Lyly may resemble something between a goldfish and a koi, yet it represents no existing species. It is conceived as a temporary form assumed by energy circulating through the body, emotions before they become words, and something close to prayer or intention as they cross the boundaries of the physical self.

Lyly swims through the invisible moisture present in the air and within the body. It may return to where it came from, or reach another person, another presence, or something unknown. Through this movement, YAMADA visualizes emotions and wishes not as things confined within a single individual, but as forces that travel between people, changing as they circulate through relationships.

Multiple Lyly often appear together, drifting alongside one another, intersecting, or maintaining distance. Their trajectories reflect YAMADA’s interest in the invisible dynamics between individuals and in the possibility that resonance with others may allow a form of hope to emerge.

Alongside abstract painting and Lyly, YAMADA has developed mixed media works combining photography and painting. By layering paint over photographic imagery, she brings together the fixed record of a past moment with memory as something fluid, continually reshaped by time and emotion.

Water is another recurring element throughout her practice. In her works using water droplets, the droplet becomes a lens that refracts light and alters familiar scenery. This interest in water, light, and shifting perception connects these works with her broader exploration of things that are present around and within us, yet often remain unnoticed.

In exhibitions, YAMADA has extended these concerns beyond the canvas through poetry, music, fragrance, plants, light, and spatial composition. Her long standing interest in art experienced through the senses expands the concerns of her paintings into physical space rather than departing from painting itself.

YAMADA has exhibited in Japan and internationally. In 2019, she held a large scale solo exhibition in Shanghai, and in 2025 she participated in EXPO 2025 Osaka, Kansai, including a collaborative installation combining painting with bamboo light.

Across these different forms, her practice remains centered on what is already present yet easily overlooked: light entering a room, a subtle change in someone’s expression, an emotion lingering within the body, a feeling not yet expressed in words, or an invisible connection between people.

By giving such experiences renewed form, YAMADA seeks to create a space in which viewers may encounter their own memories and sensations anew.

Find the Sparkling Moment in Life.

This remains at the core of her practice.