LONDON, August 2017 – Sotheby’s S|2 gallery in London will stage the first UK exhibition dedicated to the pioneering Japanese artist Yuko Nasaka (b. 1938). Though exhibited widely in Japan, the Osaka-born artist has rarely been seen in exhibitions outside her home country. Nasaka first came to prominence in the early 1960s as a member of the fearlessly inventive Gutai group, which explored radical new approaches to making art that eschewed traditional artists’ tools and mediums. Nasaka’s work is both meditative and immediate. Her practice employs industrial materials and techniques to create works that tie together the contemplative traditions of Zen Buddhism with the experience of a rapid industrialisation in post-war Japan. Nasaka’s remarkable circular reliefs are created by manipulating glue, plaster and clay on a homemade potter’s wheel, finished with a coating of industrial car lacquer. As one of the few female members of the Gutai Art Association art, Nasaka was able to transcend social barriers and expectations that women faced at that time in Japan to become pioneering figure in post-war art.

In the lower galleries, running currently with Yuko Nasaka, there will be a presentation of works by Singaporean-British sculptor and printmaker, Kim Lim (1937-1997). Lim was known for her exploration of form through balanced wood structures and detailed stone-carved sculptures. The sense of rhythm and order in her work sought to draw parallels with the patterns and structures she encountered in both nature and daily life. The exhibition includes works from Lim’s 1973 ‘Intervals’ series - repeated modules in ladder-like forms -of which other examples are held in the collection of the Tate. Throughout extensive travels across Europe and South East Asia, often as part of trips back to Singapore, Lim found inspiration in a variety of ancient civilisations and their art forms, particularly Cycladic sculpture. She often travelled with her husband, the British sculptor and painter, William Turnbull, whose practice was equally shaped by the wide range of cultural traditions and archaic visual forms they experienced.