Art distills sensation and embodies it with enhanced meaning, wrote Miguel de Unamuno. Across the 2020s, Hiroko Yoshimoto has pursued that charge in two bodies of work rooted in close observation of the natural worldespecially botanicalswhile translating perception into intensely pigmented abstraction. Her 2026 exhibition, To Abstract or not to Abstract, at the Ojai Art Center in Ojai, California, foregrounds the artists bilingual visual vocabulary of abstraction and representation.
Hard edges, living forms
In Biodiversity, saturated color and energized structure drive the compositions. Biodiversity #118 (2019) unfurls bold, contained geometric passages that channel the rigor of Wassily Kandinskys Composition VIII (1923), while leaves, vines, and undulating shapes traverse the diagonals. The series hard edge has roots in earlier work: Eves Garden (1996) sets three leaf-like lanceolatesovals tapering to pointsaround a small rectangular depiction of a yellow rose. The startling realism of that rose suggests a photographic insert set against an abstract field evocative of Minimalist painter Al Held.
Looser currents, underwater omens
By contrast, Of Infinite Variety opens up into looser, unbounded territory, slipping recognizable figuresfaces, flowers, even octopusesbetween veils of paint. Scream (2026) moves with painterly spontaneity in the spirit of Kandinskys Improvisation 26 (1912). A howling face, reminiscent of Edvard Munchs The Scream (1893), hovers in the lower left; to the right, an octopus curls into shadowed undersea space. Egg, shell, and cell forms tumble through midnight darkness, conjuring a fantastical underwater world tempered by dangeran echo of habitats and species imperiled by climate change.
Alongside these larger canvases, Yoshimoto is developing a small group of wooden panels: each presents a single flower drawn in astonishingly realistic silverpoint against a solid ground. An exquisite example sets a white calla lily on a glistening black field; the lilys thin, fragile lines press against a thick, tar-like darkness, underscoring Yoshimotos command of both abstraction and representation. Fittingly, the exhibition title To Abstract or not to Abstract names the dual fluency of her approach.
Wildlife painter Rebecca Latham describes art about nature as invitations to empathy, understanding and stewardship that raises awareness about conservation, threatened species, and the urgent need to protect the diversity of life on our planet. Yoshimotos recent work answers that invitation with acuity and grace.
Vía artandcakela.com
