Yuichi Hirako is an emerging Japanese from Okayama, Japan who is best known for creating mixed-media works, painting, sculpture, and sound performances that spotlight various plants and human figurations. Hirako recently kicked off a solo exhibition in Hong Kong’s fledgling WAREHOUSE Gallery called “Growth Rings.”

For the presentation, Hirako developed a series of new oil pastel drawings that explore the coexistence between humans and nature. “I have been working on the theme of questioning the ambiguous relationship between plants and the coexistence of humans and nature,” said the artist in a statement. “We coexist with many plants in our lives. It is a well-known fact that the presence of a lot of ‘nature’ such as houseplants, street trees, parks, etc. has a positive psychological effect on humans, but to me, this situation seems a bit ridiculous. They are fragments or imitations of the original nature and not nature itself.”

Each piece features bold brushstrokes and color, depicting whimsical figurations of humans with plants for heads set against splotchy landscapes of lush greens and surrealist atmospheres. “The works in this series are some of my most direct brushstrokes in my work. I drew each line in the work as if I were carving a growth ring. Some lines are strong and assertive in color, while others blend in with their neighbors. And sometimes the lines disappear,” said the artist.

Get a closer look at Hirako’s oil pastel drawings for his “Growth Rings” exhibition above and then head to WAREHOUSE Gallery’s website to learn more.

Elsewhere in art, Jim Hodges recently unveiled a new mirrored glass installation in New York City’s historic Grand Central Terminal.

WAREHOUSE Gallery
18 Pak Sha Road, 1/F
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
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