About the artist

“I want to depict the overlapping layers of time, space, and memory.”

Yoda Tomo

For Yoda Tomo the line is the smallest element that can give a picture space and presence. She puts colour on a white ground, sometimes adds collage, and then draws lines over it, layer on layer, until the time and space she is looking for come to the surface. The layers are real, built up on the picture itself, and they become the layers of time and space inside the world of each work.

As a child she liked to play alone in worlds of her own imagining, and the material for them was everywhere: the toes of her right foot and her left foot were brothers playing in a cave of bedding, the pattern on a tile had a character of its own and began to move. That free, unbounded excitement, she says, is still the core of her work.

As an adult she still wants to bring free time and free space into the picture: the time that cannot be seen but belongs equally to everything that exists, and the memories and feelings that go with it. If that can be shared with the person looking, nothing would make her happier.

She studied oil painting at Musashino Art University and has worked in several jobs connected to art, alongside her own painting. Small fragile things are hidden inside the works for the viewer to find: the paintings ask for a slow, close look, and give back a little more each time.

Works ship worldwide. Shipping and viewing details on request.

Exhibitions

• Kayowai mono in cublue (Fragile things in cublue), solo exhibition cublue, Nagano, Japan, 16-27 September 2026
• Group exhibition SOL Gallery, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia, 6-18 October 2026