Shinji Turner-Yamamoto (b. 1965, Osaka, Japan) is known for paintings, sculptures, and 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.
His current and ongoing sculpture project Pentimenti (2010—) employs historic and natural elements as meditations on the universe. Additional projects include Sidereal Silence, began in 2012 and inspired by waterfalls encountered in the Pacific Northwest wilderness. The Global Tree Project (2000—) focuses on tree imagery and site-specificity. Shinji Turner-Yamamoto: Global Tree Project (DAMIANI, 2012), documents 11 projects worldwide. Recent commissions include Global Tree Project: AXIS MUNDI for Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland, and Global Tree Project: ISTANBUL, an installation for the historic ruin of an abandoned Jewish orphanage, Istanbul, Turkey.
Turner-Yamamoto studied at Kyoto City University of Arts, and, sponsored by the Italian government, at Accademia di Belle Arti, Bologna. His work has been the subject of solo shows at Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce, Genoa, Italy; Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH; SAPAR CONTEMPORARY Gallery+Incubator, New York, NY; the Ippaku-tei Teahouse, Embassy of Japan + Shigeko Bork MU Project, Washington, DC. Site-specific installations include Palazzo Ducale, ASIART Asian Contemporary Art: Biennale d’Arte Contemporanea, Genoa, Italy; Saigyo-an Teahouse, Kyoto Art Walk, Kyoto, Japan; Gobi desert, Mongolia, MONGOLIA 360°: International Land Art Biennial; Deconsecrated Holy Cross Church, Cincinnati, OH; SiTE:LAB at an abandoned industrial building, Grand Rapids, MI, which received the ArtPrize International Juried Award.
His grants include the National Endowment for the Arts through the Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center, the KOHLER Arts/Industry Program, the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, the Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Foundation, the Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation, and support from Antioch College’s faculties of Ecology, Anthropology, Geology, Glen Helen Ecology Institute, TOYOTA, Cill Rialaig Project, SiTE:Lab, Pépinières Européennes pour Jeunes Artistes, and UNESCO-ASCHBERG Bursaries for Artists.
Website
https://turneryamamoto.net
