Untitled (F. Preece, Victorian) Painting

Yuma Tomiyasu was born in Hiroshima, Japan, 1983 and a painter who currently lives and works in London. She completed a BA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2009, and has exhibited in the UK and Japan. She has been shortlisted for The Jerwood Drawing Prize 2010. Selected group exhibitions include: Jerwood Drawing Prize 2010 Exhibition, Jerwood Space, London (2010): The Siren Muse, The Rag Factory, London (2010): Rising Stars 2009, Coombe Gallery, Dartmouth (2009): Chotto Ippai Ippai Desu Ten, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo (2005): DISCOVERY 2004, key gallery, Tokyo (2004). Within a series of recent works, she is attempting to paint unknown people found in old photographs. These photos are often Victorian portraits discovered in antique markets. The project explores ways in reconstructing existence of non-living, unknown people through paintings as she investigates the boundary between figurative depiction and an accidental abstraction to seek the "˜in between' of the body and the mind. By looking closely at memories of people who we have never met before and the proof of their existence, Tomiyasu's works aim to rethink and contemplate on the meanings of human life and death.