New oil paintings by Takako Yamaguchi feature self-contained seaside dreamscapes adorned with polychrome natural elements. Muted clouds swirl with attitude, knotting, braiding and coiling through whimsical feats of elasticity. Water is rendered as an unpredictable and capricious entity, either as a smooth, restful block of gradient, or as a field of orderly undulating waves in a syncopated arrangement. These surreal snapshots resemble the mystical landscapes of Agnes Pelton, imbued with the graphic language of designer Tadanori Yokoo’s psychedelia.
Yamaguchi produces intensely sharp detail so precise it often looks computer generated. The magic is in her stunning brushwork and subtle optics. Take Parade (all works 2022), in which vertical, rectangular bands of rain cascade across the canvas. On closer inspection, however, we see that these seemingly all-white bands contain softly shadowed edges, making them pop just enough against the paint’s gold and cobalt gradient background. Yamaguchi bifurcates this composition and several others with a band of solid color to indicate a horizon line, _a typically invisible indicator of depth that the artist has embodied in a consciously stylized way. The viewer is allowed to float in Yamaguchi’s optical suspensions, which skilfully play with the flatness of the canvas and the illusory depths of the image. Thus, the greatest delight of Yamaguchi’s art lies in its delicate balances: of two and three dimensions, of the absurd and the everyday, of deep serenity and endless surprise.
