OKUDA YUTA

Since beginning his artistic career in 2016, Okuda has evolved his practice from intricate linework to richly coloured compositions that incorporate chance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he began painting flowers out of a desire to “turn gratitude into art.” Since then, he has continued to work under the theme With Gratitude. For Okuda, flowers are a means of expressing appreciation and thinking of others, as reflected in the everyday gesture of giving flowers.

In Colour of Days, Okuda develops this idea through 366 paintings, each depicting a single flower. Conceived as a record of individual days, the works reflect the accumulation of daily expressions of gratitude. The title suggests that even ordinary days carry their own reasons for gratitude, and that these moments give colour to the passing days.

The exhibition will also feature bouquet works from the Brain Palette and With Gratitude series. In his earlier bouquet paintings, Okuda used a palette knife to spread paint across the canvas, allowing chance to shape abstract compositions with an underlying sense of order. In the new works, he has moved away from the palette knife to apply paint directly with his hands.

This shift brings the movement of his gestures directly onto the canvas, introducing a more spontaneous quality to the work. These marks interact with the vivid colours and delicate linework characteristic of his practice. Working directly with the paint and canvas also brings him into closer physical contact with the work.

As Okuda marks ten years as an artist, Colour of Days brings together the development of Okuda’s visual language to date and the new directions emerging from it. We warmly invite you to experience the exhibition in person at the gallery.