Kyoto Meetings

Ulterior Gallery brings together work by Kyoto-based artist Takashi Kunitani and New York-based artist Carrie Yamaoka. Both artists’ works lie somewhere between paintings and sculptures. Both artists use light—its projections, refractions or occlusions—as material.
These objects, either handmade stained glass on found material in Kunitani’s work or reflective polyester film and urethane resin in Yamaoka’s, create room for discovery in how these works sit in space. These works meet in a vertical and horizontal space, both reveling in the perceived dimensionality of the objects they are creating.
Although they come from different generations and backgrounds, both artists bring fresh perspectives to the dialogue between American Minimalism and Japanese aesthetics, underlining the cultural exchange between Japan and the United States. Takashi Kunitani was born in Kyoto Japan in 1974 and graduated from Seian University of Art and Design in Shiga Prefecture, Japan in 1997. Based in Kyoto since the late 1990’s, Kunitani has exhibited at institutions including Shirley Fiterman Art Center, New York; Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art; Kyoto Art Center; Art Tower Mito; and Art & Design Center at Nagoya University of The Arts. Carrie Yamaoka was born in 1957 in Glen Cove, NY as a third generation Japanese American. Her work has been presented in numerous exhibitions at The Henry, ICA Philadelphia, MoMA/PS1, Palais de Tokyo, Centre Pompidou, the Wexner, Victoria and Albert Museum, MASS MoCA, among others. Yamaoka’s works will be included in Roppongi Crossing 2025 opening at the Mori Museum in December 2025.