Yasushi Koyama

Solo exhibition “Shall we sit together ? (Istutaanko yhdessä?) “ at Aava in Galleria Uusikuva in Kotka, Finland

5.4.-27.4.2024

In an art gallery I often feel that I would like to sit on a chair to see artworks. So I would like visitors to sit on my wood-sculpture bench to see my exhibition of animal sculptures. Through the exhibition, I hope to give visitors a new experience of art and cultural relationships. While sitting on the wooden bench of animal sculpture, visitors can engage their sense of touch, experiencing the texture and warmth of the wood material. This experience deepens the cultural relationship between the artwork and the visitors. And my exhibition “Istutaanko yhdessä? (Shall we sit together?)” promotes social inclusion in a society and encourages visitors to connect with one another. The functional sculpture as a wooden bench creates a shared space where individuals can come together, can be relaxed to see art and can make new cultural relationships with art & community in Kotka.

In the exhibition I show a large wood sculptures of lion bench (150 x 60 x 60 cm) to be able to sit on. I donated it to Katariina daycare center in Kotka in autumn 2023 and borrowed it for the exhibition. I also show a large wood sculpture of walking cat. I show mainly sitting animal sculptures of lion, wolf, panther, panda, white bear, white tiger, lynx, rabbit etc. I also show some standing animal sculptures of bear and raccoon. In addition, I show a wood sculpture bench of puffer fish. I created those sculptures from wood, ceramic, glass and stone.

Galleria AARNI

Changing world - endangered and survivors -

2.8.-27.8.2023

Animal sculptures, installation, VR art

A climate of our world is changing every minutes. Animals including human-beings are living in such a world. Some animals are endangered. Others overcame the extinction. We have faced natural disasters such as forest fire, river flood, linear rainfall, landslide. Animals in North pole and South pole are getting to lose living areas on ice day by day. I felt shocked with European floods 2021 and Atami landslide 2021 and many floods by heavy rainfalls in Japan. And Many koalas have faced Australian bushfires in 2020-22. Through my exhibition, I would like to remind that a climate is changing and would like you to think of the continuation of animal species.

In the exhibition I showed the sculptures of endangered animals and survivors such as white bear, penguin, wolf, panda, anteater, white tiger, panther etc. They were made from wood, ceramic, stone, and glass. Some animals were mom (or papa) and child to pray for the continuation of animals over generations. And I created VR art of panda papa & child. I showed the VR art with the real panda sculpture (152 cm high) to be able to touch & hug the real panda sculpture in the VR world. Visitors enjoyed the feeling between a real art existence and VR art. In addition, I created a large wood sculpture “Koala mom & child” (90 x 37 x 30 cm). I donated it as public art to children´s public place “Montessori lastentalo & Ruustorpankoulu“ in Espoo on 28.8.2023 after the exhibition.

The newspapers Helsingin Uutiset & Lansiväylä wrote down the articles about my exhibition at Galleria AARNI. Thanks to the articles, there were many visitors. The exhibition coordinator Seela Petra wrote to me “You have a great exhibition here. It's a pleasure to see visitors enjoying themselves” & “ The largest number of daily visitors has been 83 persons. So far we have had over 700 visitors in your exhibition, which is really great!”. Thank you for all the visitors and Galleria AARNI!

Smiling Animals

10.11.-4.12.2022

Sometimes I feel that animals are smiling. When they look happy, they seem to smile and their smile makes us happy. You can see their smiles at home, outside or in photos and videos on Facebook, Instagram, twitter. Animal´s smiles give people positive and warm feelings, so that I created smiling animal sculptures. Especially in these difficult times when there are wars, corona and darkness, my smiling animal works can bring a therapeutic feeling and positive energy to the people who visit my exhibition at Galleria Duetto.

In the exhibition I show smiling animal sculptures made from wood, ceramic and stone, such as raccoon, child tigers, Egyptian cat, panda, koala, bear, wolf, fox, rabbit, etc. These works include three wood reliefs. The largest wood relief is “Monkey & white tiger child” (80 x 60 x 3 cm). I also show glass fruits of peach, bent eggplant, green apple, yellow paprika and mandarin.

Herra Otso ( Mr. bear )

27.5.-19.6.2022

In ancient times, a bear was worshiped as the god of the forest. It is the same in Finland and Japan. The bear festival of Japanese native Ainu was a ritual ceremony and a festival to send the soul of bear & spirits of the forest from this world to another world. Human beings have entrusted something sacred to bears. They have talked with an invisible existence of the forest through a bear. I consider that the bear world which I create with wood by hand chisels is a ritual ceremony to respect the forest.

In the exhibition, I showed bear sculptures from wood, stone, ceramic, and an installation of white birch wood to express the bear forest. The largest work was the wood sculpture “Fishing luck bear” (155 x 50 x 50 cm). I created it at the Suvisaari boat factory where an artist residency of Kuopio academy of design arranged for me. Kuopio´s bronze statue “Veljmies” holding fishes and Ainu bear sculptures had an influence on this work. The large wood sculpture ”Fishing luck bear” was donated to Kuopio University Hospital after the exhibition.

The title of exhibition was "Herra Otso". I considered a forest as a space where human beings meet mother nature. We human beings are a part of nature and a part of the earth. We have faced climate change and natural disasters. I rethought of the relationship between human and nature by using a metaphor of bear "Herra Otso" as a god of forest through the viewpoint of folklore and anthropology. In my exhibition, I wanted to express the forest anthropology of the bear in Finland and Japan.

Savon Sanomat 28.5.2022. Fi

Henna Hietanen / Hurmiotunut Fi

Visit Lakeus Ja

In the opening ceremony there were more than 50 visitors. They saw and experienced the space of bear sculptures and a wood installation in my exhibition. According to the gallery person Sari Liimata, my exhibition was very popular and got two times more visitors than the other exhibitions. Thank you for all the visitors !

I have had a solo exhibition “Spring Forest” at Kulma in Galleria Uusi Kipinä in Lahti, Finland 28.4.-16.5.2021.

When spring begins, you would find a lot of new leaves on trees. It shows the beginning of new life and visible energy of nature after coldness and darkness in winter. Spring forest has a lot of new lives of tree, leaf, grass and animals. When you see animals in a spring forest, you would feel a pure nature. The nature in a spring forest includes freshness, gentleness, loyalness, calm and innocence. The world of animals in spring forest narrates and shows those feelings to exhibition visitors.

In the exhibition I have showed Finnish animals in a spring forest such as bear, wolf, fox, rabbit, stoat, wild cat, woodpecker etc made from wood and ceramic. The largest work is the wood sculpture “Waving bear” (152 cm high). I also have showed the wall painting of white birches to express the fresh green of spring forest.

Since 2020 I have started to have forest theme exhibitions. When you see a forest, a forest also see you. My forest theme exhibitions give a feeling to be with forest animals in the atmosphere of forest in a gallery space. This is the first one of my 3 forest theme exhibitions like “Spring Forest” in Galleria Uusi Kipinä, Lahti in 2021, “Herra Otso” in Galleria Ars Libera, Kuopio in 2022 and “Changing world” in Galleria AARNI in 2023. I considered “forest”, “forest animals” and “climate change” through my exhibitions.

The 2020s began with the Corona Pandemic. Since then we have received a new normal life. I have thought of the relationship between nature and human-beings in association with this corona pandemic and have been thinking about ecological theory and anthropology.

In the end the city Lahti was selected as the European green capital in 2021 (#Green Lahti 2021). I am pleased to have my exhibition in Lahti in such a memorial year of greenliness!

I had my solo exhibition in Galerie Pleiku in Berlin, Germany 13.8 - 24.8.2019. It was my first solo exhibition outside of Finland. The concept was “CUTE”. I created animal sculptures from wood and ceramic. My animal figures are described “cute, innocent and humorous”. Finnish design, illustration, art & cartoon have inspired me for 12 years during my studying and art working in Finland. Similarly, the Japanese Manga, Anime and Yoshitomo Nara´s Neo-pop art have also strongly influenced on my artistic language. Through the exhibition I emphasised the power of cuteness in the contemporary culture as my way of mixture between Japanese cuteness “Kawaii” and Finnish cuteness “SÖPÖ”. Happily an exhibition visitor commented “CUTE exhibition is very therapeutic. I would love to spread the word and let more people know”.

Another theme was to break the boundary of art, design and craft. I have thought that they are equal for the concept CUTE. The Finnish way of wool socks 🧦 knitting inspired the combination of wool knitting T-shirts and ceramic animal of Panda. The work “Panda friends wearing various T-shirts” went beyond those categories softly and flexibly under the sky of Berlin!

I had my solo exhibition in Galleria Becker in Jyväskylä, Finland 26.1 - 14.2.2018. The concept of exhibition was “Innocent”. When you see animals in a forest, you would feel a pure nature. The pure nature of animal describes innocence to you. Innocence is the origin of feelings. It includes freshness, gentleness, loyalness, calm and cuteness. The world of innocent animals narrates and shows those feelings to exhibition visitors. I showed a large animal sculpture “Penguin mom & baby” (152cm high) , 11 wood animal sculptures, 8 ceramic animal sculptures and 4 animal wood block prints. The director of Galleria Becker Tuija Ollikainen told that there were 886 visitors and the amount was three times more than the average of the other exhibitions in Galleria Becker.

I had my exhibition in Auran Galleria in Turku, Finland 28.11 - 17.12.2017. The concept was “Animals”. When I was 4 - 6 years old, I was making animal sculptures with clay everyday. My father gave me photo books of animals and our family visited zoo to watch animals especially Panda, penguin white bear, monkeys etc. Animal photo books and to watch animals in Zoo were the first inspiration for me to create animal sculptures. Though I made sculptures of human mainly in art school, I reflected my childhood that I started to create art as animal sculptures. In the exhibition I showed the art work “Walking cat with Katja´s T-shirts” that was cooperated with Katja Tukiainen and 13 wood sculptures and 10 ceramic sculptures. I also painted pink dots and Panda face with house paint on the wall as one type of my printmaking technique. It was a wonderful show so that many Turku people visited and watched from windows the show.

I had my solo exhibition in Galleria AARNI in Espoo, Finland 24.11 - 18.12.2016. For the exhibition I created a large animal wood sculpture "Panda papa & child" that is 160 cm high and 400 kg. My intention was to create the animal sculptures to give the sense of touch and happiness. The exhibition included my "Art for children" theme. Touching and hugging the panda sculpture gave children a sense of participation. It meant that the exhibition was for all the family members. So I wanted to bring art to all the individuals for “Social inclusion” through my art. After the exhibition I donated the sculpture “Panda papa & child" to children´s department in Sello library in Espoo as a public art.

I had my solo exhibition in Annantalo gallery in Helsinki, Finland 1.4 - 8.5.2016. Anntantalo is the children´s culture centre in the city centre of Helsinki.

In the gallery I showed animal wood sculptures for children to touch and hug.  The exhibition theme was “Art for Children”. I put one large animal wood sculpture (130 cm high) and five middle sized sculpture (50cm high) on the gallery floor directly. The intention of exhibition is to give children the sense of touch & hug on art works and many children with family and many children´s groups from schools and day care centers visited the exhibition and touched sculptures.

In the exhibition I also intended the children’s participation in the exhibition as a workshop. On the opening day of exhibition I made the workshop “Lets´make a pink room“. Before the workshop I prepared to paint 15 big dots (100 cm, 50cm and 30 cm) on the gallery wall in Annantalo.  And I also prepared about 2000 pink dot stickers for white wall in the gallery. On the opening day I asked children to put stickers as much as they wanted. After the workshop the white gallery space will be turned into Pink room by children´s hands.

It was a very successful exhibition. It was so popular and the Finnish largest newspaper Helsingin Samomat inteviewed me for the exhibition.

I had my solo exhibition in Malmitalo gallery in Helsinki, Finland 22.10 – 14.11.2015 for all the generations between children and old people. The exhibition theme is “Beyond the generation”. Malmitalo is a cultural center in Northeast Helsinki, that has the library, cinema, theater, art and cultural courses. So my purpose was to give small happiness to all the generations who visited Malmitalo through my artworks. I believed that happy feeling went beyond the age and cultural background.

I was interested in the relationship between contemporary art and people. I thought that the distance between them was far. German contemporary artist & sculptor Joseph Beuys told “Everyone is an artist” and made art activity for society. I empathized with him and had a mind of “Art for society”.

The exhibition was well accepted by people in the northeast Helsinki and south Vantaa. Malmitalo gallery got more than 2300 visitors (automatic visitor count was 4600) and that was the visitor record of gallery's history. After the exhibition I donated the large sculptue to Helsinki Rudolf Steiner School in November 2015 to give children small happiness and joy to touch.

I had my solo exhibition “Carving in Pink Dots” in MUU Kaapeli (MUU Cable) gallery at Cable Factory in Helsinki, Finland 31.7 - 6.9.2015. I was interested in the relationship between contemporary art and ordinary people. I thought that the distance between them was still far. So I would like to shorten this distance through the exhibition. It was an experimental exhibition of participation and art performance in the gallery space through 2 art projects. One was Pink dot project and another was Carving project.

In the Pink Dot project I painted 45 pink dots with wall paint on the walls of gallery.  The sizes of pink dots are 110 cm, 55cm, 30cm, 20cm. And I prepared 1000 pink dot stickers for exhibition visitors.  I asked them to put Pink Dot stickers on the wall in the gallery to participate in my exhibition. Many people join in putting pink dot stickers on the wall. It was a nice communication between contemporary art and people.

In the Carving project I made a large animal wood sculpture “Panda mom & child” (158 cm high) in the gallery space of MUU Kaapeli to show the process of wood carving during exhibition period as art performance.  The intention was to make the distance between contemporary art and people closer by showing the making process to exhibition visitors. During sculpturing I met many visitors to have shown the process and to communicate to talk about art work, the exhibition and artist life etc.

https://taiteilijalehti.fi/taiteiden-yo-2015

"It is impossible not to smile when everyone meets Yasushi Koyama's cute animal sculptures." This was the first phrase of article for my exhibition in Galleria Jangva. It was written by a newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet (HBL) on 1.11.2014.

I had my solo exhibition in Galleria Jangva studio in Helsinki, Finland 29.10 - 16.11.2014. Galleria Jangva was one of my favorite art galleries in Helsinki. So I was very pleased to have my exhibition there. I showed 13 wood sculptures, 10 ceramic sculptures and 4 wood block prints. For this exhibition I borrowed a large wood sculpture ”Big Panda” from Children’s hospital Lastenlinna. In return 3 of my animal wood sculptures were given as Christmas present to children in Lastenlinna in December 2014.

I had my solo exhibition in Kenno, Galleria Uusi Kipinä in Lahti, Finland 26.2 - 16.3.2014. The theme of exhibition was to give people “warm feeling”. The world of my animal sculptures warmly wrapped up the hearts of the people who restlessly passed the city. Most of my works are made from one piece of wood by using hand chisels. Rich textures of wood sculpturing give people warm impression. I showed 8 wood sculptures and 5 ceramic sculptures.

I had my solo exhibition in Galleria Nikolai in Kotka, Finland 22.10 – 9.11.2013. The theme was SÖPÖ (Cute). I showed 7 wood sculptures and 8 plaster sculptures. On 21.10.2013 I had the opening party of my exhibition. There were many visitors to see my wood sculptures. I was very happy to have such a nice opening party there.

I had my solo exhibition in Napa gallery in Helsinki, Finland 10.1 - 4.2.2012. It was my first solo exhibition selected by juries that was based on application selection. I liked the atmosphere of Napa gallery very much and Napa art & illustration inspired me a lot. So I was very happy to have had my exhibition there. The exhibition title was “Panda travelling”. I made panda sculpture from large wood and also from plaster. About plaster panda I made a story of “Panda travelling” and created a photo book of it. I also created slideshow of Panda travelling with a video projector. They were in the exhibition too. I showed 8 plaster sculptures, 4 wood sculptures, 1 bronze sculpture, 2 wooden reliefs, 1 photo book and 1 slide show. The following was the introduction of the exhibition “Panda travelling”.

Panda Travelling

Panda is going traveling with a white puppy to meet animal friends and a baby.

One moment one meeting!

Meeting with friends makes Panda’s journey happy!

Aggressively cute animals and babies are coming together in Napa Gallery.

Hope you will come here to see them.

Enjoy your meeting with animals!