Skip to content

Avito KOYAMA

(Japan 1951– )

Title
My Landscape A-6-90
Place of origin
Japan
Period
Heisei period 1989 - → Japan
Year
1990
Media category
Print
Materials used
screenprint
Edition
6/50
Dimensions

50.5 x 74.0cm image; 56.5 x 76.5cm sheet; 70.0 x 90.0cm frame

Signature & date
Signed and dated l.r., pencil "Avito Koyama '90".
Credit
Gift of the artist 1993
Accession number
437.1993
Location
Not on display
Further information

For Koyama the screenprint is the catalyst for delving into his own feelings and communicating his response to what inspires and excites him. His subject is landscape, specifically the dry river landscape near where he now resides in Saitama Prefecture. Koyama photographs this landscape himself, entrusting his body to nature, responding to the breezes through the grasses
and the light reflected from the sparkling clouds

After he has printed a photograph, he mentally breaks it down into its component colours. He then produces his prints by layering veils of the colour over his original photograph thus transforming the landscape photograph into a unique image. Each application of colour transforms and personalises the original even more, akin to religious homage as he seeks to articulate through each layer his own heart, his own instincts, probing his response to the landscape. The objectivity of the photographed landscape is personalised through the almost painterly layers of abstraction, and the viewer's cognitive faculties are challenged by the plurality of the work. The transmission poles that are a fixed feature of his serially titled landscapes reinforce the metaphor of invisible electromagnetic fields transmitting the as yet unspoken and unseen.

Koyama was born in Okayama Prefecture, educated at the Sokei Academy of Fine Arts and has participated in many print exhibitions.

Jackie Menzies, Contemporary Japanese Prints: The Urban Bonsai, 1992, pg. 60.

Bibliography (1)

Jackie Menzies (Australia) (Author), Contemporary Japanese Prints : The Urban Bonsai, Sydney, 1992, 59 (colour illus.), 60. cat.no. 32

Exhibition history (11)

The Urban Bonsai, Queensland Art Gallery, 04 Mar 1992–04 May 1992.

The Urban Bonsai, National Art Gallery, Wellington, 20 Jun 1992–09 Aug 1992.

The Urban Bonsai, Christchurch Art Gallery, 12 Sep 1992–29 Oct 1992.

The Urban Bonsai, Manawatu Art Gallery, 13 Nov 1992–10 Jan 1993.

The Urban Bonsai, The George Adams Gallery, Victorian Arts Centre, 18 Mar 1993–25 Apr 1993.

The Urban Bonsai, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 08 May 1993–01 Aug 1993.

The Urban Bonsai, Lewers Bequest and Penrith Regional Art Gallery, 11 Mar 1994–24 Apr 1994.

The Urban Bonsai, The Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, 19 May 1994–19 Jun 1994.

The Urban Bonsai, Campbelltown Arts Centre, 15 Jul 1994–21 Aug 1994.

The Urban Bonsai, Moree Plains Gallery, 11 Nov 1994–24 Dec 1994.

The Urban Bonsai, Tweed River Regional Art Gallery, 01 Feb 1995–05 Mar 1995.