A Conversation with Mayumi Yamase

When she was a student at Chelsea College of Arts in London, cramming into basement shows and pubs in the less salubrious side of town and putting on DIY exhibitions, Mayumi Yamase found it hard to imagine a world where painting and making art would pay the bills.

“I’d come from Japan to London, which felt like a different universe in a way,” says Yamase, as we walk around Yoyogi Park, a peaceful blotch of green set amidst the Shinuya concrete. A supportive high school art teacher had studied at Chelsea, and suggested that a young Yamase could do the same. “I feel very thankful to have had that experience, and to then bring that perspective back to Japan and my home,” she says, as we watch a group of dogs bolt around and wrestle on the dry grass.

In the subsequent years, Yamase has exhibited around the world and, recently, welcomed a baby to the family. “I haven’t slept too much, but the experience has made me view my art in a more… pure sense, I think? It made me remember why I started painting and gave me a new perspective on what I really enjoy.”

Soft collisions of primary colours, Yamase’s output has the feeling of something organic. Gently abstract, on canvas and sculpture. In the notes for her most recent solo exhibition, at i Gallery in Osaka, she wrote that, “In recent years, my paintings depict clusters formed by various elements (objects) coming together, with things gathering and swirling around them as if expressing a living entity.”

Alongside her exhibition work, Yamase has also painted her designs onto trainers for Nike, illustrated magazines and has a mural in the Tokyo Skytree which (fun fact) is officially the world’s tallest tower. “To be a successful artist is, probably, one of the hardest things you can choose to do,” she says, as we seek out some shade beneath a blossom tree that has long-since lost its petals. “I have a family, I have my work. I feel lucky. You can’t ask for much more.”