Hiroko Yoshimoto

By Betty Ann Brown

"What is Art, monsieur, but Nature concentrated?"—Honoré de Balzac

"Art distills sensation and embodies it with enhanced meaning."—Miguel de Unamuno

Hiroko Yoshimoto's paintings concentrate nature into radiant and dynamic beauty, distilling visual sensation into poetic and environmental significance. Throughout the 2020s, Yoshimoto has worked on two series of paintings about nature: Biodiversity and Of Infinite Variety. Both series are based on observation of the natural world — especially botanicals — and in both, the artist translates her perceptions into intensely pigmented abstractions. Biodiversity is characterized by solid patches of saturated color that flow through vigorously animated compositions. Of Infinite Variety adds representative details to the abstract foundation: visual references to faces, flowers, even octopuses appear between her veils of painterly space.

Yoshimoto's Biodiversity #118 (2019) deploys bold patchworks of contained geometric shapes, recalling Wassily Kandinsky's Composition VIII (1923). Leaves and vines and irregular areas with undulating contours dance across compositional diagonals. Roots for such hard-edged abstractions can be seen in earlier examples like Eve's Garden (1996), with three leaf-like lanceolates — ovals with pointed ends — flanking a small, rectangular representation of a yellow rose. The realism of the rose is remarkable; it looks like a color photograph collaged onto an abstract composition by Minimalist painter Al Held.

Biodiversity 118, 2019

In contrast to the hard-edged abstractions of Biodiversity, the paintings from Of Infinite Variety are loose and unbounded. Yoshimoto's Scream (2026) is painterly and spontaneous, recalling Kandinsky's Improvisation 26 (1912). Scream also differs from earlier examples in its inclusion of recognizable plants and animals. A howling face reminiscent of the central figure in Norwegian Expressionist Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893) hovers in the lower left part of Yoshimoto's composition. An octopus curls into the shadowy undersea space on the right. Egg, shell, and cell shapes tumble through ominous spaces of midnight darkness. It is a fantastical underwater world of rare beauty tempered by the threat of danger — just as so many of our planet's spaces and species are threatened by climate change.

Scream, 2026

In addition to the relatively larger works from Of Infinite Variety, Yoshimoto is also working on a small series of wooden panels. Each panel has a solidly colored background behind an astonishingly realistic silverpoint drawing of a single flower. An exquisite example places a white calla lily on a glistening black background. Unlike the thick, tar-like black, the lily is rendered in thin, fragile lines. The panels perfectly highlight the artist's mastery of both abstraction and representation. To Abstract or not to Abstract, the title of her 2026 exhibition at the Ojai Art Center, specifies the bilingual nature of Yoshimoto's visual vocabulary.

Wildlife painter Rebecca Latham describes the function of artworks about nature as "invitations to empathy, understanding and stewardship… [Such art] raises awareness about conservation, threatened species, and the urgent need to protect the diversity of life on our planet." Whether totally abstract or partially representational, Yoshimoto's artworks serve as such invitations, reminding us to honor and protect our beautiful natural world.

To Abstract or not to Abstract

Ojai Art Center

Ojai, California 2026

Betty Ann Brown is an art historian, critic, and curator based in Los Angeles.

All photography Courtesy of the Artist.

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  Of Infinite Variety 1

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  Eve's Garden: A Yellow Row for Teiko

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  Calla Lily

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  An Interlude: Multicolors