Ko Kirk Yamahira: deconstruction and reconstruction

In October, Russo Lee Gallery will present “deconstruction and construction” by Seattle artist Ko Kirk Yamahira. His work is a tactile and unusual approach to minimalism, involving the removal of individual threads from the weave of the canvas. In deconstructing his paintings, he converts surface into form and presents new ways to see classically modern shapes. His work inhabits the entire space, hanging from wall and ceiling, revealing the original bones of the painting while creating softer, elegantly draping forms.

2018 has been a busy year for Ko Kirk Yamahira; earlier this year he had his first solo museum show at the Frye Museum in Seattle, curated by Amanda Donnan. He is also in a group show with Art Beasties, a Japanese art collective based in New York City, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. Concurrently he showed this summer at Bridge Productions in Seattle in the exhibition “The Veil,” a multi-media installation. Yamahira also has a new work installed at the Bellevue Arts Museum.
Born in Los Angeles and raised in Tokyo and London, Ko Kirk Yamahira moved to Seattle from New York in 2015. He has exhibited in galleries in the United States and Japan, both individually and as a member of the artist collectives SOIL and Art Beasties.