September 2020
Online Exhibition

Four You Gallery is pleased to present ‘Through the Seasons,’ an exhibition of acrylic paintings on canvas by Tokyo based artist Ryoko Kaneta. Since graduating from the Yokohama College of Art and Design, she has successfully exhibited her artworks in group and solo shows globally. Kaneta has hosted group exhibition ‘199X’ for almost 10 years, featuring artists born in the 90’s who were surrounded and heavily influenced by Japanese anime and manga, much like her. As well as these more contemporary stimuli, the artist draws brilliance from pre 19th century Japanese paintings. Personification is a theme that appears consistently in the sources she looks to for inspiration, and consequently in Kaneta’s artwork too. The artist uses the universally familiar human form to express ideas and objects of phenomenal abstraction.

Kaneta’s paintings exist as an amalgamation of Japanese cultural histories, ancient and recent. Her artworks meditate on indigenous folklore narratives and the cyclicality of nature’s seasons, both of which are intricately linked. The artist’s homeland and extensive travels to places of natural beauty have significantly informed her paintings. These cultural expansions have infused her artworks with visual wisdom and a clear articulation of emotion. Kaneta seamlessly marries nature and its elements with human feeling through the use of personification. The paintings in ‘Through the Seasons’ are evocative of the emotions inflicted by nature that are often too hard to articulate with words.

August 2020
Online Exhibition

Four You Gallery is pleased to present ‘Door to Door,’ Miki Matsuyama’s inaugural exhibition of paintings. In 2018 Matsuyama graduated from the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University in Tokyo and has since embarked on a creative career with aspirations to become an interior designer. This interest has been encouraged by her experience in sales with Sotheby’s real estate, and developed into a keen curiosity about curated space. The artist’s work sits somewhere between fine art and illustration, as she re-imagines in paint images of interiors collected from Instagram and magazines. Matsuyama’s resultant artworks are vibrant and welcoming, immediately transporting the viewer into the reconsidered space.

Having lived in numerous culturally rich cities and spending free time in museums, Matsuyama has been exposed to many realizations of art and architecture. She lists Pierre Yovanovitch as a design influence and Monet and Picasso as some of her artistic inspirations. As well as these outward influences, Matsuyama has been motivated more intimately by her artist grandparents who she joined in their studio from a young age. Her rich cultural history is embedded in the paintings in this exhibition. They are uniquely delicate and somewhat imperfect, as the artist’s trace of hand remains present.

June 2020
Online Exhibition

Four You Gallery is pleased to present artist Gemma Holzer’s first solo exhibition entitled ‘Alone Together’.Californian born Holzer recently graduated with a first class bachelors degree in Fine Art from City & Guilds in London, and has already exhibited works in the Netherlands and the United States. Primarily, her work is a reflection on childhood, the following emergence into adulthood, and life in the post digital age. The artist uses creative tools including autobiographical illustration, references to popular culture and indications to familiar children’s media to demonstrate her philosophies. Holzer paints primarily with brightly coloured oils and acrylics to attain surfaces that mimic digital screens. Her painterly method realises saturated illusions that both absorb and activate dream-like recollections of youth.

‘Alone Together’introduces the fetus-like creature PinkBoy, a self-portrait of Holzer, who remains the subject of the paintings in this exhibition. PinkBoy is reminiscent of familiar cartoon imagery, and exists as an embodiment of Holzer’s childhood experiences. He is placed within the artificial worlds to raise questions and concerns around being human in today’s age, and depicts the artist’s own understanding and navigation of life within it.