Today we’d like to introduce you to Yasuyo Maruyama.
Yasuyo, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I can’t pinpoint a specific moment when I started drawing. Ever since I was a child, I simply loved the act of drawing itself. Whenever I found empty space, in handwriting practice books, math workbooks, or even the margins of test papers, I would end up filling it completely with drawings before I knew it. Every time my notebooks or tests were returned, my teachers would give me a wry smile and say something like, “I can see you’re working hard, but I’d love it if you put that passion into your studies too.”
I was born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. When I was in first grade, my family moved to Ohio because of my father’s work, and we lived there for three years. During school breaks, my parents took my siblings and me on cross country road trips across the North America, as well as trips to Europe and South America. We visited many historical sites, cultural areas museums, and national parks. I was a curious and energetic child who loved meeting people and making friends wherever we went.
However, around the time I entered adolescence, I developed severe atopic dermatitis and spent more than three years battling it. I was constantly covered in scratches from my face to my whole body, was barely able to attend high school, and could not get through daily life without my mother’s help. Even when I worked up the courage to go outside, I would often face stares and unkind comments about my appearance. Coming during such a formative time, this was a deeply painful experience both physically and emotionally. I gradually became withdrawn, started avoiding people, and shut myself off from the world.
As I spent more time at home, I passed the days reading manga and watching anime. Around then, I started drawing characters and figures, and drawing eventually opened the door to a new world for me. A desire to seriously study art began to grow, and after three years at an art prep school in Tokyo, I was accepted into Tokyo Zokei University, where I earned both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in painting. After graduating, I worked at the university as an assistant to the art faculty.
After that, my interest in artist residency programs in the United States grew. Through a connection from one of my mentors, Professor Masami Kondo, I was introduced to a professor at Midwestern State University in Texas, and in 2014 I was invited there as a resident artist for one year. During that residency, I met the artist who would later become my husband, and we married in 2016. I have lived in Texas and continued my art practice there ever since.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. While I was based in Tokyo, I had spent years steadily showing my work and entering competitions since my university days, and through that process I gradually built connections with galleries and people in the art world. But when I moved to the United States, I left all of that behind and had to start from scratch in a new environment.
The reality was harder than I had imagined. I had no fellow artists nearby to talk to casually, and I had to start researching what competitions even existed in the US and which galleries might be a good fit for my paintings. I could no longer casually visit galleries the way I used to, and just gathering information took up most of my time. I persistently applied to open calls and other opportunities, only to face rejection time and again. The first three years were a repeated cycle of disappointment and discouragement. Even so, I never stopped making work.
Little by little, I started to be accepted into shows and receive awards, and those opportunities eventually led to commissions and exhibition invitations. I believe each small step steadily opened the way forward. I have a stubborn, never give up personality, and I think my ability to keep working persistently toward a goal is one of my greatest strengths.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My portraits explore the quiet narratives and layered identities held within the human face. Through the medium of oil painting, I aim to go beyond the mere reproduction of a subject’s appearance, seeking instead to capture their emotions, psychological presence, and what lies beneath the surface.
My painting process begins with a wooden panel. I apply thirty to forty layers of white ground, carefully allowing each layer to dry before sanding the surface to a smooth, almost porcelain-like finish. Onto this foundation, I build up many thin layers of diluted oil paint. Each piece typically requires approximately three months, and this accumulation of time is essential to the quiet, introspective atmosphere that defines the work.
The square format of my compositions symbolizes the visual limitations we experience when facing another person: we can only ever know a part of them. I believe this limitation leaves room for the viewer’s imagination, drawing out a sensitivity toward what remains unspoken. Visually, I combine the symbolic visual language found in Japanese manga and anime with techniques drawn from Western classical painting. By merging stylized representation with classical depiction, I aim to convey the complex emotions held within nonverbal elements such as silence, gaze, and gesture.
In Tokyo, after graduating, I worked as an assistant to university faculty while exhibiting my work in various galleries. Following my first solo exhibition at GALLERY MoMo Roppongi in 2009, I went on to hold solo exhibitions at venues including Gallery Sakamaki and GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku, and participated in numerous group exhibitions, including the longstanding group exhibition “Avenir” at Shunpudo Gallery in Tokyo. Since relocating to Texas, I have had the opportunity to hold solo exhibitions in various locations, primarily at Ro2 Art Gallery in Dallas, as well as at Redbud Arts Center in Houston and The Forum at Wichita Falls. In recent years, I have participated in group exhibitions at museums in Texas, including “Forward Facing: A Look at Contemporary Portraiture” at the Tyler Museum of Art, and have continued to take part in group exhibitions in Japan, such as the “Metamorphose” series held at Artglorieux Gallery of Tokyo in Ginza SIX, Hankyu Umeda Main Store in Osaka, and the HOKUBU Memorial Art Museum in Sapporo, Hokkaido, as well as “grid3” at biscuit gallery in Shibuya.
In terms of recognition, I was selected for “NEW AMERICAN PAINTINGS WEST #162” in 2022, and that same year received “the Juror’s Special Award at the 9th Annual Texas Juried Exhibition”. In Japan, my accomplishments include selection for the Sompo Japan Art Award Exhibition “FACE 2013,” an award at “the Liquitex Art Prize 2012”, and “the Tamayo Iemura Juror’s Award” at the Shell Art Award Exhibition 2011.
Most recently, I have been selected as one of fifty artists for the juried exhibition “NEW TEXAS TALENT 33,” and I am preparing for upcoming group exhibitions at Craighead Green Gallery in Dallas and “100 Years at the Forum” at The Forum in Wichita Falls.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Don’t avoid things just because you think you’re not good at them. Take on what interests you. Even unrelated experiences can prove useful later.
Make no excuses, just give it your all. Things often won’t go as planned, but stay grateful, speak up about what you want to do, and keep at it without giving up.
Challenges only come to those capable of overcoming them, so I see hitting a wall as a chance, not a setback.
You may not notice it at the time, but looking back, you’ll find all those experiences connected into one path.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.yasuyomaruyama.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasuyo.maruyama/
