CURRENT EXHIBITION

Shoko Yui
" Reaching the Threshold "

April 4 (Sat) - May 17 (Sun), 2026

In the midst of days that pass in hurried succession,
I paint the retreating lights found within the landscapes that simply flow by
—imagining the lives of people I will never meet who dwell within them —
believing that through this act, I can make the memories of fleeting moments something certain and real.

I turn these moments into paintings in order to hold onto the shifting seasons and the colors of the sky,
along with the fading memories of warmth and the feelings I once carried.

Shoko Yui

Gallery 38 is pleased to present “Reaching the Threshold” the first solo exhibition by Shoko Yui, opening on Saturday, April 4.

Shoko Yui is an artist based in Nagano, Japan. She graduated from the Major in Oil Painting, Department of Painting, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2019, and since 2023 has presented her work mainly in Nagano and Tokyo. In 2025, she held a solo exhibition titled Before Regretting This Color at Komoro Kogen Museum of Art in Komoro, Nagano, producing new works while staying in Koumi Artist in Residence.

Since her student years, Yui’s work has consistently centered on landscapes composed of expansive skies and distant horizons. The scale of her works ranges widely―from small paintings measuring around 22 cm to series that extend up to ten meters in width when installed together. Yet across more than fifty works produced to date, the same simple composition of sky and earth repeatedly appears. While their realism can be striking, the paintings evoke not tension or heaviness but rather a sense of clarity and openness. The vast sky and landscape seem almost to invite the viewer to breathe. 

Yui began painting landscapes in oil during high school under the influence of an art teacher. The subject resonated with the scenery of her hometown, and she continued painting such landscapes throughout her preparatory school and university years. At times she wondered whether she should paint something more “special,” given the consistency of her motif. However, once she became free from the comparisons and evaluations she felt within the framework of university, she found herself able to face the landscape more directly and honestly. 

Although photographs serve as the basis for her paintings, they do not document any specific location. While rooted in the scenery of Nagano, the places depicted are essentially “nowhere in particular.” Yui does not deliberately travel to photograph landscapes. Instead, most of the images are captured during daily movement―through the window of a car on the expressway during her commute, or from a seat on the fast speed train. These are fleeting landscapes encountered by chance. She isolates a single moment from this flow of movement as a photograph, then carefully translates it into painting. While the sky, mountains, clouds, and their formations are the main elements that structure the image, some works emphasize the shifting expressions of clouds and sky, allowing them to occupy most of the canvas.  Through them, viewers can almost experience Yui’s own shifting gaze as it moves across the landscape. What draws Yui is the relationship between a world that flows past and the sky that remains. The sky above our field of vision appears still, while the townscape beneath it seems to drift by, moving along with the artist herself. The people who inhabit the landscapes seen from the window remain unseen; yet precisely because of this distance, Yui says she can imagine the lives of unknown others. 
Although the scenery she paints originates in her hometown, Yui does not position herself “within” the landscape. Instead, she observes it from afar―through windows, lenses, or screens―maintaining a perspective that is slightly detached. The resulting paintings are neither nostalgic visions nor purely subjective landscapes. Rather, what emerges is Yui’s quiet commitment as an artist: to observe a landscape attentively and continue painting it. 

In this sense, Yui’s landscapes function almost like windows. Within the frame of the canvas appears a simple, highly realistic view, yet it can feel abstract or emotional depending on the viewer. This reflects the fluid way we perceive vast landscapes―as something at once unreal and deeply personal. A painting might appear as a morning scene to one viewer, and as an evening landscape to another. How strongly it connects with memory or emotion is ultimately left to the viewer. 

Yui says she continues painting landscapes in order to “reflect on the sun that sets each day and the changing seasons and colors of the sky,” and to “preserve memories and feelings that gradually fade” by transforming fleeting moments into paintings. Although the landscapes she depicts are quiet, they carry neither heaviness nor anxiety. Instead, they possess a sense of lightness and openness that painting itself can offer―perhaps because both the artist’s viewpoint and our own continue to move.

The exhibition title "Reaching the Threshold" reflects a desire to approach the horizon where sky and earth meet, and to move toward the landscape that lies beyond. Even as she hesitates, Yui repeatedly returns to her starting point: simply continuing to paint the landscapes she loves. The landscape that lies beyond that boundary is something we, too, quietly contemplate.

[ Shoko Yui ]

Shoko Yui is an artist based in Nagano, Japan. She graduated from the Oil Painting program in the Department of Painting at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2019.
Since 2023, she has presented solo and group exhibitions mainly in Nagano and Tokyo. Major exhibitions include What Will Snow Become When It Melts? (2023, Gallery 1045 Sakudaira, Nagano), Shoko Yui (2023, Juichigatsu Gallery, Tokyo), and Before Regretting This Color (2025, Komoro Kogen Museum of Art, Nagano).

Exhibition Detail：

Shoko Yui　
" Reaching the Threshold "

Date: April 4 (Sat) - May 17 (Sun), 2026
The artist will be at the gallery on the 4th (Sat)
Opening reception: April 4 (Sat) 18:00-20:00  

Opening hours: 12:00 - 19:00　
Closed on: Mon, Tue and National Holidays
*Please note that details are subject to change without notice. For the latest updates, please check our social media.

Venue : Gallery 38 
2-30-28 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku Tokyo
tel: +81(0)3 6721 1505
email: contact@gallery-38.com