Shinji Turner-Yamamoto is a Japanese artist based in the U.S. known for paintings, sculptures, and site-specific art installations employing elemental materials such as trees, fossils, and minerals, creating profound viewer connections with nature. He works with identifiable imagery to encourage humanity to encounter the essential in nature and time in new and unexpected ways and is committed to using historic and natural elements in his work as meditations on the universe.
Biography Shinji Turner-Yamamoto was born in Osaka, Japan. He studied at Kyoto City University of Arts, and, sponsored by the Italian government, at :it:Accademia di belle arti di Bologna, where he lived for eleven years. His work has been the subject of solo shows at :it:Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce, Genoa, Italy (1999); Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland (2002); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA (2010); the Ippaku-tei Teahouse, Embassy of Japan + Shigeko Bork MU Project, Washington, DC, USA (2008); Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery / Aronoff Center (the National Endowment for the Arts Art Works/Visual Arts category grant), Cincinnati, OH, USA (2016). His site-specific installations include Palazzo Ducale, ASIART Asian Contemporary Art: Biennale d'Arte Contemporanea, Genoa, Italy (1999); Saigyo-an Teahouse, Kyoto Art Walk, Kyoto, Japan (2005); Gobi desert, Mongolia, Land Art Mongolia International Land Art Biennial (2010); Deconsecrated Holy Cross Church and Monastery, Cincinnati, OH, USA (2010); SiTE:LAB at an abandoned industrial building, Grand Rapids, MI, USA (2011) which received the ArtPrize International Juried Award.Banai, Nuit. "International Award - Shinji Turner-Yamamoto," ArtPrize Vimeo Channel, 8.10.2011 Exhibitions include "Substance and Increase"Volk, Gregory. "Substance and Increase," SAPAR CONTEMPORARY, New York, NY, USA 2017. curated by Gregory Volk, SAPAR CONTEMPORARY Gallery+Incubator, New York, NY, USA (2017); "Alchemy: Transformations in Gold"Burkhalter, Laura. "Alchemy: Transformations In Gold," Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, USA 2017. curated by Laura Burkhalter, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, USA (2017)."Shinji Turner-Yamamoto: Sidereal Silence," Weston Art Gallery/Aronoff Center for the Arts, Cincinnati, OH, USA 2016.
Selected Works/Projects
Global Tree Project (2000-) - series of site-specific works - (monograph) "SHINJI TURNER-YAMAMOTO: Global Tree Project," DAMIANI, Bologna, Italy 2012.
His Global Tree Project explores a poetic reunion with nature, making visible bonds and similarities between plant life and humanity, emphasizing ecological wisdom and the interconnectedness of all life. Shinji Turner-Yamamoto: Global Tree Projectremix | BOOKSHELF, The New York Times T Magazine, 19.08.2012 published by DAMIANI, fall 2012, documents 11 projects worldwide realized in a ruined folly on a cliff overlooking the Celtic Sea,Turner-Yamamoto, Shinji. "The Global Tree Project," INTERIORS, december 2012/january 2013. an 8th-century Kiyomizu Temple Sutra Hall,Global Tree Project: SLEEPING VISHNU TREE (2005), supported by: Kyoto Art Walk Association, Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, Kyoto City a garden in New Delhi,Turner-Yamamoto, Shinji. "The Global Tree Project," INTERIORS, december 2012/january 2013. the Mongolian Gobi Desert,Suri, Rajath. "The True Silent and Transcend," DIAOSU - National Sculpture Magazine of China, may 2011. and abandoned architectural landmarks in the American Midwest.Graham, Patricia J. "Compassion, Craft and Connectedness," Orientations Magazine, may 2011."HIGHLIKE," SESI-SP Editora, São Paulo, Brazil 2014."My Green City: Back to Nature with Attitude and Style," Gestalten, Berlin, Germany 2011. The two recent commissioned site-specific projects are: Global Tree Project: AXIS MUNDI"About Trees," Zentrum Paul Klee, Snoeck Verlag, Köln, Germany 2015. (2015) for Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland, and Global Tree Project: ISTANBUL (2016), an installation for the historic ruin of an abandoned Jewish orphanage, Istanbul, Turkey, through the Beşiktaş International Garden and Flower Festival.A Haiku to Nature in Reston, By Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post, October 17, 2008International Action - CSPA - The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, issue five 2011
Pentimenti (2010-) - series of sculptural works - Zielinski, Sara. "Sara Zielinski Interviews Shinji Turner-Yamamoto," The Huffington Post, 07.06.2017.
"Pentimenti is the plural of pentimento, a word describing the visible traces of earlier work that can be seen through the layers of a finished painting. Shinji Turner-Yamamoto takes on this term metaphorically rather than literally, employing it to title sculpture rather than painting but embracing its acknowledgement of layered artistic endeavors. Each of these small sculptures is a complex combination of materials, and they reach their completed form not only through the artist's hand but by the processes of nature and time. The scope of geologic time presents an almost impossible set of numbers to comprehend. Materials we come into contact with on a regular basis—coal, stone, gold existed on Earth long before life, as earlier forms of life existed long before human civilization came into being. Throughout his body of work, Turner-Yamamoto has chosen to use materials so old that ancient doesn't even describe them accurately."Burkhalter, Laura. "Alchemy: Transformations In Gold," Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, USA 2017.
See also Ecopsychology Environmental art
References
Further reading Huff Hunter, Bea. "Traces of Probable Loss: A Conversation With Shinji Turner-Yamamoto," Sculpture Magazine, May/June 2019 Dawson, Jessica. "Earthy Abstractions," Washington Post, Friday, March 14, 2008 Cox, Kara. "Uprooted from our Native Soil: A Two-Person show asks timely questions about nature and sustainability," artcritical, 21.03.2017.
External links official website Shinji Turner-Yamamoto: Disappearances | Contemporary Arts Center - VIDEO Shinji Turner-Yamamoto: Disappearances | Contemporary Arts Center Targetti Light Art Collection