Currently, there is a interesting exhibition by Umera Lyota at Gallery Shimada. Umera's small paintings and specifically his portraits of two young women are well constructed images (see Shimada Gallery and picture is at bottom of page).
Around the corner of this portrait painting is a series of largish fine drawings by Umera where he exhibits his remembrances of creatures, places and beings, it's an honest exhibition at what fascinates him to use as motifs within his art .
The world is full of wonderment and Umera is not afraid to put his interests into paintings and drawings that in a way reminds one of the Dutch painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525 - 1569) paintings with people doing all sorts of human activities in domesticated village scenery.
On the table within the main gallery is a series of Umera's books in opening them and turning the pages, well constructed images reveal themselves, but it also shows the he is on a small scale he is a good image maker but like all painters, who try large canvasses, the journey is fraught with aesthetic painterly challenges and artists from before Rubens till now still struggle with these concerns, no matter how famous the artist is seen to be.
For example, the relationship between brush marks and how to scale up from smaller paint traces is a difficult issue in painting and historically always has been, Umera in this show is now slowly but steadily working through these asethetic problems and in time his larger paintings may well become as successful as his smaller artworks.
So if your in Kobe do walk up the mountain to see this competant and interesting artists exhibition.
Link to Shimada Gallery
http://www.gallery-shimada.com/schedule/exhibition/uemura_1007.html#exhibition
