Yuki Aruga: Without End

YUKI ARUGA SOLO SHOW

Maddox is delighted to welcome British artist Yuki Aruga for her debut exhibition, Without End. The works on show are a hauntingly beautiful introduction to the Norwich-based artist, whose hyperrealist still-life paintings of flowers are rendered in exquisite detail.

Predominantly known as a painter, Yuki adapts her practice to suit her ideas, becoming a sculptor, taxidermist, draftsman, filmmaker - whatever the concept calls for. Her dedication to learning traditional artistic techniques to broaden and deepen her practice, including verre églomisé, gilding, Japanning and faux marbling, is reflected in the scope of works on show, which encompass paintings, sculptures, decorative glass panels and sketches.

Born in Essex, Yuki studied fine art at Wimbledon School of Art and Camberwell College of Arts, graduating with a First-Class Honours degree in 2008. In 2016, her painting Severance was longlisted for the Columbia Threadneedle Prize: Figurative Art Today. The artist was awarded an MA with distinction from the City & Guilds of London Art School in 2021, after which she was invited to join the Painter Stainers’ Decorative Surfaces Fellowship. Upon completing the fellowship, Yuki became an honorary Freeman of the Painter-Stainers’ Company.

At the heart of the exhibition is a series of eight tondos – circular works of art – and a diptych that reveal Yuki’s fixation on detail, texture and colour. Core to her practice is a desire to document things she finds beautiful in her every day, with flowers, and roses in particular, a favourite subject. Capturing fleeting moments in time when a rose blooms and quickly fades, each painting can be viewed as a metaphor for the cycle of life.

There is a sense of stillness and quiet to Yuki’s artworks that speaks of her fastidious nature. Producing a painting begins by creating a collage of photographs, for example roses on the cusp of losing their petals overlaid with a caterpillar and a bird’s wing, with everything about her process intentionally slow and meditative.

As a child, Yuki’s British-Japanese identity led her to feel isolated, and she used art as a means of escape. Today, Yuki’s mixed-race heritage feeds her practice and shapes her aesthetic, which displays clear East Asian influences with its richness, subtlety and delicacy. The way in which her subject matter is suspended in a dark void – the negative space, known as ma in Japanese – reflects the feeling of never quite being from one place or another.

The title of the exhibition is inspired by the tanka poem of the same name by Ono no Komachi, considered one of Japan’s greatest female writers, whose poetry dates from the period 833-857.

Without End / Ono no Komachi Without end

Do I think of you and so

Come to me at night.

For on the path of dreams at least, There’s no one to disapprove!

A rumination of what it feels like to long for someone from a female perspective, the poem is a pathway into a dreamscape that exists only in the mind. This resonated strongly with Yuki, who views the canvas as a window into another realm.

“From her Vanitas paintings, which recall Dutch still-lifes, through to her sculptures and glass panels, what is startling to me is how diverse Yuki’s practice is,” says Maeve Doyle, Artistic Director of Maddox Gallery. “Journeying through the artist’s mind, her works give voice to subjects that occupy Yuki’s thoughts, but which can be difficult vocalise, revealing their beauty layer by layer.”

Yuki has shown at numerous exhibitions and art fairs around the world, including the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition in 2020 and Unpacking Gainsborough at the Cynthia Corbett Gallery in 2021, both in London, and undertaken several artist residencies, most recently the Trélex Residency in Switzerland. In 2022, she participated in two group shows with Maddox Gallery. Without End is her debut solo show with Maddox.

AXIS, 2022

Oil on Canvas 120 x 120 cm

Oil on Canvas 110 x 110 cm

THE FLOWER OF FORGETTING, 2023

Oil on Canvas 100 x 100 cm

THE FLOWER OF FORGETTING, 2023

FED BY THE SUN, 2022

Oil on Canvas 100 x 100 cm

FED BY THE SUN, 2022 Detail

SATELLITE, 2022

Oil on Canvas 100 x 100 cm

ORBIT I, 2022

Oil on Canvas 80 x 80 cm

ORBIT II, 2022

Oil on Canvas

80 x 80 cm

NIGHT DEEPENS, 2023

Oil on Canvas

140 x 110 cm

LANDMARKS, 2022

Oil on Canvas 80 x 160 cm

24 Carat Gold and Enamel on Glass 36 x 17 cm

ROSE STUDY II & III, 2022

24 Carat Gold and Enamel on Glass 17 x 17 cm each

PEONIES STUDY, 2022

24 Carat Gold and Enamel on Glass 36 x 17 cm

STUDY OF SATELLITE & STUDY OF MOMENTS TO KEEP, 2022

STUDY OF AXIS, 2022

24 Carat Gold and Enamel on Glass 70 x 50 cm

STUDY OF AXIS, 2022

318°, 2016 & INTERSTICE, 2015

Ballpoint Pen on Paper 90 x 72 cm each

UNTITLED, 2023

Ballpoint Pen on Paper 90 x 72 cm

UNTITLED, 2023

Oil on Archival Giclee Print 50 x 38 cm each

ORBIT I STUDY & ORBIT II STUDY, 2022

Gold Leaf and Oil on Archival Giclee Print 50 x 38 cm each

WITHOUT END STUDY & SATELLITE STUDY, 2022

Oil on Archival Giclee Print 50 x 38 cm each

AXIS STUDY & FED BY THE SUN STUDY, 2022

Oil on Archival Giclee Print 50 x 38 cm each

NIGHT DEEPENS STUDY, 2023

GYRE, 2022

Polymer Clay, 24 Carat Gold, in Glass Bell Jar with Wooden Base 35 x 22 x 22 cm

FLORID, 2022

Polymer Clay, 24 Carat Gold, Faux Marble (Acrylic & Oil on Wood), Glass Bell Jar

22 x 20 x 20 cm

CURLICUE I, 2022

Polymer Clay, 24 Carat Gold, Glass Bell Jar 27 x 15 x 15 cm

PLINTHS, 2022

Acrylic and Oil on Cardboard & MDF 108 x 30 x 30 cm each

RADIAL STUDY & NARTHEX STUDY, 2021

Oil on Archival Giclee Print 50 x 38 cm each

FLORA STUDY, 2022

Oil and Pencil on Paper 42 x 30 cm