New York, United States
May 6, 2025
David Zwirner is pleased to announce the representation of Japanese artist Yu Nishimura. Zwirner currently has a solo exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Nishumura on view at their East 69th Street gallery in New York. This exhibition is the artist’s first solo show in the United States, and the body of work on view was inspired by Nishimura’s recent trip to his hometown of Yokoda where he spent his formative childhood and early teenage years in the 1990s. The artist also works with Sadie Coles HQ in London and Crèvecœur in Paris.
Combining traditional oil and tempera techniques with visual impulses borrowed from avant-garde postwar Japanese photographers, Nishimura’s 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. Built up from dreamlike arrangements of simplified, semiblurred forms, his 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.
David Zwirner states: "When my daughter Marlene introduced me to Yu Nishimura’s work, I was immediately intrigued. Yu manages to blend contradictory forces—namely the rigor of modernism with what I would call his own take on neo-romanticism. His works get under your skin. His sophisticated paint handling reflects a deep investigation of the genre, yet his voice is entirely contemporary. I’m excited to welcome Yu to the gallery and look forward to presenting his art to new audiences.”
Yu Nishimura (b. 1982) 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).
The artist’s work 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.
For all press inquiries, contact Julia Lukacher jlukacher@davidzwirner.com