ART CITIES:Paris-Yasuko Hirano
Yasuko Hirano’s paintings are constructed by stretching canvas over wooden panels, applying a ground of animal glue and gesso, sanding the surface after drying, and repeatedly layering oil paint in the three primary colors. At the foundation of her work lies the notion of “landscape.” However, this is not a simple reproduction of visual information. Rather, physical sensory elements—such as sight, smell, and touch—are integrated with mental components derived from memory and emotion and reconfigured into images that embody a multilayered sense of time.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Galerie Frank Elbaz Archive
In an era saturated with immediate visual stimulation, Japanese artist Yasuko Hirano invites us to lower the resolution of the external world and turn our gaze inward. Presented at Galerie Frank Elbaz in Paris, Hirano’s first solo exhibition in France, “Anthem”, brings together a recent series of abstract oil paintings that explore memory, perception, and the rhythmic flow of time. Moving past traditional landscape representation, Hirano’s quiet, luminous compositions evoke what in Japanese thought is known as a joukei (inner landscape)—a mental scene where physical memory and consciousness seamlessly converge.
While a conventional landscape anchors itself to specific geographic coordinates and linear temporal moments, Yasuko Hirano’s art transcends literal representation. Her paintings do not depict a static scene; rather, they serve as metaphysical projections shaped by fleeting sensations and deeply held memories. Her imagery draws inspiration from the quiet rhythms of the natural world, such as the expansive sky shifting through light and shadow, the dark, still hush of night, the contours of the Toyama mountains where she spent her childhood, and the subtle textures of plants and trees encountered in daily life. Yet, over years of refining her practice, Hirano has moved away from recognizable forms. What appears at first glance as a minimalist monochromatic painting gradually dissolves into a delicate interplay of color, line, and light. Rather than capturing how a place looks, she captures how a place feels when processed through the filter of time and human consciousness.
Hirano’s painterly process is deeply tactile and rigorously disciplined. She begins by stretching raw canvas over wooden panels, priming the surface with traditional animal glue and plaster priming. Through repeated, meticulous polishing, she erases the coarse texture of the canvas weave, creating a smooth substrate that absorbs and reflects light with extraordinary subtlety. Her chromatic approach relies on a deliberate self-imposition of limits, applying primary color oil paint restricted almost exclusively to yellow, red, and blue. Through delicate layering, these three fundamental hues interact to generate shifting grays, muted tones, and subtle gradients that drift like segments of time across the surface. Small, recurring circular dots mark where the process of mixing paint achieves completion, signaling that the work has transformed from a personal act of creation into an autonomous presence confronting the viewer. Through the repetition of painting and the organic deviations that accompany hand technique, the artwork becomes a living, breathing space.
In everyday life, our eyes are flooded with unfiltered visual information, but Hirano’s work suggests a meditative abstract art practice: a state of half-closed eyes, where visual input is softened so that the other senses can awaken. Her canvases act as sensory sponges, gathering details from the entire body. The skin reading shifting temperatures and seasonal humidity, the olfactory scent of trees and autumn air, the auditory frequencies of wind and moving water, and the steady rhythm of breathing all find form within her work. Lines, dots, and arcs float across her compositions, echoing these full-body experiences to create an artwork that feels physical, supple, and continuously in motion.
By titling her Paris art exhibition “Anthem”, Hirano speaks to a shared human resonance. In a modern world disconnected from ancient mythologies and shared symbolic languages, her paintings offer a space of quiet reconciliation. When viewers surrender to the contemplative realm of her work, superficial boundaries like gender, race, nationality, and language fade away. Hirano captures a nostalgic yet fresh sensation from daily life, anchoring it firmly onto the panel. Her serene gaze and grounded, sincere practice confirm a simple, universal truth: the quiet validation of the soul’s existence, alive here and now.
Photo Left : Yasuko Hirano, Again, 2026, Oil, plaster, glue on canvas, wooden panel, 162 x 130.3 cm, 63 3/4 x 51 1/4 in., © Yasuko Hirano, Courtey the artist and Galerie Frank Elbaz/ Photo Right: Yasuko Hirano, There you are, 2025, Oil, plaster, glue on canvas, wooden panel, 162 x 130.3 cm, 63 3/4 x 51 1/4 in., © Yasuko Hirano, Courtey the artist and Galerie Frank Elbaz
Info: Galerie Frank Elbaz, 66 rue de Turenne, Paris – France, Duration: 5/9-0/10/2026, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, https://galeriefrankelbaz.com/
