MUNEHIRO YOSHIMURA

Illusion on Outskirts of Town
July 11 - August 29, 2026
Opening Reception: July 11, 5-7pm
Summer holidays: August 12-15

Munehiro Yoshimura has long created paintings centered on suburban landscapes and human figures. Houses standing in the woods, buildings lining the roadside, roads leading to the edge of town, and public squares where people gather. The scenes he depicts are familiar to us, yet at the same time they seem slightly displaced from reality, carrying an unsettling undertone. Vivid colors, figures with a peculiar presence, and the suggestion of stories that remain unexplained. Within Yoshimura’s paintings, familiarity and unease, nostalgia and estrangement coexist, gradually drawing the viewer into their world.

The title of this exhibition, “Illusion on outskirts of town”, is a phrase the artist has used in the past. In interviews, Yoshimura has spoken of the “outskirts of town” as a place that evokes the edge of civilization—a landscape touched by a subtle sense of ending. It reflects his fascination with the distinctive atmosphere that lingers just outside the urban center. Buildings along arterial roads, the outskirts of residential neighborhoods, places that seem as though, if one were to venture a little farther, everything might suddenly disappear. This sensibility runs throughout works such as “Pink House” and “The Town Where the Giant Twins Live”, both of which are included in the exhibition. They convey a feeling of being an extension of everyday life while somehow remaining connected to another world.
At the same time, Yoshimura’s paintings are populated by a cast of distinctive recurring figures. They are by no means heroic. They often appear vulnerable, awkward, and at times even comical. As he has remarked, “I don’t want to paint things that are cool.” Yet his gaze is never dismissive of humanity. Rather, it seems sustained by a sense of familiarity and empathy toward people who live with weakness, sorrow, and discomfort, as well as by a warm affection and lighthearted humor toward the imperfect nature of human existence.

Yoshimura has said that he repeatedly reworks his paintings, even after they appear complete. Asked why, he simply answers, “It’s about beauty,” adding that “the purpose of painting is simply to make a good painting.” This approach—at once remarkably straightforward, stubborn, and sincere—of confronting painting itself above all else is a defining aspect of Yoshimura’s practice. It also serves as the foundation for the material strength and solidity of his works as paintings. The motifs that recur throughout his paintings may not merely be characters within a narrative; they may also be figures that have emerged through his ongoing exploration of painting itself. Yoshimura has also stated that he seeks “not photographic realism, but painterly realism.” Grounded in a deep engagement with the history of Western painting, his enduring pursuit of a better painting resonates throughout the works presented in this exhibition.

Infused with both humor and melancholy, Yoshimura’s paintings are stories for someone living somewhere in the world, while also serving as mirrors that reflect ourselves. Reality and imagination, familiarity and dissonance, beauty and absurdity—embracing these opposing elements, Yoshimura’s paintings lead us to the town’s edge, a place suspended between the real and the imagined. Just beyond the landscapes we know well, there may be a small doorway opening onto another world hidden within everyday life.

Munehiro Yoshimura was born in Hyogo, Japan in 1961, where he currently lives and works. He graduated from the Department of Economics at Kobe University of Commerce in 1984 and from the Department of Oil Painting at Musashino Art University in 1990.

Munehiro has presented his work in: Solo show “Illusions on the Outskirts”, KAYOKOYUKI, Tokyo, 2026; solo show “Illusions on the Outskirts”, Gallery of the Fine Art Laboratory gFAL, Tokyo, 2024; solo show “The Artist and the Atelier - The Training of the Métier”, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art / Hyogo, 2022; solo show “Portraits and Rearranging the Studio”, FARO Kagurazaka Tokyo, 2019; solo show “Munehiro Yoshimura Solo Exhibition”, Hohorindo Gallery, Motomachi, Kobe Hyogo, 2019; solo show “Welcome, Humans”, STUDIO Y3 , Hyogo, 2018; solo show “Munehiro Yoshimura Solo Exhibition”, Sakuragi Gallery, Tokyo, 2016, solo show “Problem Priest”, 888books / pearl book shop gallery, Tokyo, 2016; solo show “Traveler of the North”, 6 Jigen, Tokyo, 2013; “Planet of Sorrow”, Kobe Art Village Center, Hyogo, 2012.