ART-REVIEW:Jochen Gerner & Yuichi Yokoyama-to the East

We distinguished recommend you the exceptional coexistence of two artists, with different starting points, references and work, but united by their exhibition’s title as a common place at Anne Barrault Gallery. Jochen Gerner lives in the East of France while Yuichi Yokoyama lives in Tokyo’s suburbs, the East of the world. The most interesting is that they have never met but this particularity connects them. Jochen Gerner participates at the 16th International Architecture Biennale of Venice and Yuichi Yokoyama has three exhibitions in France and Switzerland.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Anne Barrault Archive

 Jochen Gerner’s and Yuichi Yokoyama’s works in the exhibition “to the East” are completely different. The works of Yuchi Yokoyama are black and white referring to Japanese Comics while the Monochromatic works of Jochen Gerner are “Blind Landscapes”, and while you would think that isn’t possible the coexistence of these two artists, it is not only possible, but in fact they are complementary. That’s because “The World Map” by Yokoyama, a set of new drawings with black ink and collages, as well as paintings done in 2010 that are on presentation at the Gallery, complement  by a recent series of white monochromes: a winter landscape, a set of drawings of Stockholm of Jochen Gerner. Moreover the drawing, graphic or architectural, also the persistence of the perfectionism of both artists are elements that connect them, making the exhibition extremely interesting and the viewer really feels very comfortable in his visit, without having to wonder what and why and at the same time without getting tired. We should emphasize here that it is the first time that Yuchi Yokoyama presents a set of drawings and paintings in a gallery in France. The artist lives alone in a tiny house in the suburbs of Tokyo. He has no computer or television. After graduating from the painting department of Musashino Art University, he first dedicates himself to painting, then gradually to drawing. Because of his cramped living space, where he can no longer keep his paintings, he then choosed to apply the flexibility offered by the paper with the help of the ink. Elements that have a long and strong tradition in the culture of his country, creating in this way the exoticism that we like and at the same time the mystery that can be hidden behind a black and white world. In the world of Yuchi Yokoyama and the artists of the East there is still space in the dream, the imagination and the fantasy but in the West everything is colored and can’t be imagined, everything is revealed to us, Yokoyama’s  stories are stochastic and full of adventures, silent and loud at the same time. Jochen Gerner in his work, lines and the variety of unusual colors, thanks to a detail of a few square millimeters (line) or several meters (colors), constantly questions the status of the image, and displays a sentient vocabulary.

With this series, he crystallizes the architecture he sees. A church amounts to the symbol of the cross, to its evocative power. The three crowns, the coat of arms of Sweden, become three dots. Long lines suggest Centralbron, one of the main roads of the Stockholm.

Info: Galerie Anne Barrault, 51 rue des Archives, Paris, Duration: 16/6-28/7/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.galerieannebarrault.com