David Zwirner is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by Japanese artist Yu Nishimura (b. 1982). This will be his first solo show in the United States, following several international presentations of his work in recent years. Combining traditional oil and tempera techniques with visual impulses borrowed from trailblazing postwar Japanese photographers, Nishimura’s multilayered paintings are steeped in everyday sources such as street photography, anime, and the diverse landscapes and built environments of the artist’s home country. Built up from dreamlike arrangements of semi-blurred forms and simplified shapes, his portraits and urban scenes achieve a stark sense of contemporaneity through their evocative palettes and spare and graphic compositional approach—yet at the same instant, they appear to exist in a nebulous realm of melancholic reminiscence that documents the passage of time.

Dates: April 24 - June 27, 2025