Yu Nishimura

Japanese artist Yu Nishimura’s (b. 1982) multilayered paintings are steeped in everyday sources such as street photography, anime, and the diverse landscapes and built environments of the artist’s home country. His dreamlike portraits and urban scenes achieve a stark sense of contemporaneity through their evocative palettes and spare and graphic compositional approach—yet at the same instant, they appear to exist in a nebulous realm of melancholic reminiscence that documents the passage of time.

Nishimura was born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, and he continues to live and work there today. In 2004, he graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at Tama Art University, Tokyo, where he studied oil painting.

Recent solo and two-person exhibitions of Nishimura’s work include Subject Seconds: Magnus Frederik Clausen & Yu Nishimura, Castle, Los Angeles (2024); Synopsis, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2024); Sleep Walk, ARCH, Athens (2024); Takezaki Kazuyuki + Nishimura Yu. The Sequel: Twin Boat Songs – Verdigris Vessel, Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art (MonET), Niigata, Japan (2023); December Light, La Società delle Api, Monaco (2023); State of Stillness, Crèvecœur, Paris (2022); Ebb Tide, Dawid Radziszewski Gallery, Warsaw (2021); Eli Bornowsky & Yu Nishimura, King’s Leap, New York (2021); Scene of beholder, Crèvecœur, Paris (2020); Around October, KAYOKOYUKI, Tokyo (2020); Aperto 09: Nishimura Yu, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2018); portrait, KAYOKOYUKI, Tokyo (2017); projection, KAYOKOYUKI, Tokyo (2016); project N 61, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery (2015); TWS-Emerging 202. Yu Nishimura: The Scenery Carried, Tokyo Wonder Site Hongo (2013); and Haruhi Painting Triennale: Artist Series Vol. 65 Yu Nishimura, Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum, Aichi, Japan (2010).

David Zwirner announced the representation of Nishimura’s work in 2025. In April of that year, a solo exhibition of the artist’s work, Clearing Unfolds, was presented at the gallery’s 34 East 69th Street location in New York.

Work by Nishimura is held in institutional collections worldwide, including the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; Artistic Museum of Contemporary Art, Cardiff, Wales; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Fukuda Art Museum, Kyoto; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum, Aichi, Japan; Lafayette Anticipations - Collection Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin, Paris; Long Museum, Shanghai; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; M Woods Museum, Beijing; MACAM - Museu de Arte Contemporânea Armando Martins, Lisbon; Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; Rubell Museum, Miami; and Taguchi Art Collection, Japan.