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YUKO SHIRAISHI
Japan in 1956.
She lived in Vancouver, Canada
from 1974-1976.
She received her B.A. and M.A. from
the Chelsea School of Art in London.
She was awarded a British Council Scholarship in 1981-82.
She resides in London.
Shiraishi's pure, quiet abstract paintings in oil prompted the following passage in
the recently published book on her work.
The author, Waldemar Januszczak,
wrote:
"Describing colours in words is very difficult, I admire the care with which Yuko Shiraishi achieves it in her titles.
"Blue Deference (2)" is the beautifully precise name of a beautiful painting.
What does a blue which "defers" need?
It needs another blue to defer to.
And sure enough here is a painting in which two blues arranged in stripes,
a strong dominant blue and a pale airy blue, gently dispute who defers to whom.
When Yuko Shiraishi describes a colour as "silvery-purple" she draws your attention to the sea where an icy moonlight can underpin a sumptuous solar mauve.
"She herself collects examples
of colours in boxes.
Cutting out samples from labels, magazines, wrappers, she has assembled
a huge catalogue of printed hues.
Each box contains hundreds
of telling scraps.
Which is the largest box?
White.
She has so many examples of white that she needs two boxes for them all,
divided into hot white and cold white.
The smallest box is for orange,
a colour with few variations.
Blue also requires two boxes.
It strikes me that she collects colours
in the way that a scientist collects
samples, or a butterfly collector
collects butterflies."
YUKO SHIRAISHI's Biography
Yuko Shiraishi, BETWEEN GREEN AND ANOTHER GREEN,
1995, oil on canvas, 54 x 48 inches
Yuko Shiraishi, BLUE DEFERENCE, 1994,
oil on canvas, 72 x 66 inches
Yuko Shiraishi, SLOW BLUE (2), 1996,
oil on canvas, 72 x 66 inches
Yuko Shiraishi, HEARKEN (2), 1997,
oil on canvas, 54 x 48 inches
Yuko Shiraishi, BETWEEN YELLOW AND
ANOTHER YELLOW,
1995, oil on canvas, 54 x 48 inches
Yuko Shiraishi, DIVERGE (2), 1994,
oil on canvas, 54 x 48 inches
