Naomi Van Holbutt is a painter. She studied Fine Art Painting at Chelsea College of Art & Design, London (BA Hons, 1st Class), graduating in 1994, and received a Masters in Fine Art from The National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo in 2005. She has been the recipient of two Japanese Government Monbukagakusho Scholarship Awards: 2001 – 2003, The National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo and Saitama University (Research and Japanese Language Scholar), 2003-2005, Tokyo University of the Arts (MFA Scholar).

Van Holbutt works and exhibits in the United Kingdom and Japan and her work is in a number of private collections worldwide. Solo exhibitions include ‘TOZAI TOZAI’, Saoh & Tomas, Tokyo, 2001; ‘In Praise of Shadows’, Sotheby’s Japan, 2003; and ‘White Thread, paintings and works on paper, 2001-2024’, Saoh & Tomas, Tokyo, 2024. Recent exhibitions include ‘Point of View, 2019’, Randan Stables Gallery, Hay on Wye, 2019; ‘Point of View, 2020’, Randan Stables Gallery, Hay on Wye, 2020; and ‘Orpheus Melting’, The Gallery, Kingston, London, 2024. Forthcoming exhibitions include a solo show of new work at Saoh & Tomas, Tokyo, 2026 and ‘Objects, History, Time’, Cross Lane Projects, London 2025.

In 2019 Van Holbutt founded Randan Stables Gallery, in association with Hay Festival; an exhibition space dedicated to contemporary painting and sculpture.

Imperfect Geometry
a series of limited-edition serigraphs

In Praise of Shadows and the Ambiguity of Japan

 The inspiration that Naomi Van Holbutt has discovered between the cultures of East and West is obvious from her last solo show in Japan entitled TŌZAI TŌZAI. In the exhibitions’s catalogue, Peter Naumann from the National Gallery of Australia was already making reference to Tanizaki’s ‘In Praise of Shadows’, observing that Tanizaki may have been speaking directly to Naomi Van Holbutt when he wrote about ‘the elusive shadow of life’. And when I visited Naomi’s studio at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music and spoke to her about Kyoto’s Ryoanji Temple, it’s screens and the light of its veranda, I realized that the conversation between this artist and Tanizaki has only just begun.

 Her work is almost monotone while the canvases are often long and narrow. However, it is her use of repetitive line and abstract shape within these paintings that evokes rich images of shadow and reflection that are neither harsh nor minimal. For me, it is her ability to somehow capture the very essence of filtered sunlight that is so wonderfully impressive. The influence of Japan can of course be seen in these elongated reflective images, but just as it is said that you can find infinite colours within a single drop of Japanese sumi ink, her paintings prove that it is also possible to find infinite shades and meaning within a single shadow.

 In a passage from T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Hollow Men’, the British poet talks about the shadow as the ambiguous space between the idea and the reality, a place where many meanings lie hidden, and our own Nobel Prize–winning author Kenzaburo Oe has written about ‘Japan, the Ambiguous, and Myself’. In the catalogue for the 2001 Triennale in Yokohama I discussed the wide variety of tones one can find between black and white. Maybe an appreciation of the ambiguous area that lies between two opposite poles is something unique to both our cultures.

 The intensity of feeling within any middle ground is of course defined by the breadth and richness of the culture that surrounds it. That is why the sense of subtle delicacy and peace that is found within Naomi’s work is so important in the context of both our current and future aesthetics. In this uncertain age of globalization where there are often harsh and direct questions about culture and its role, the sense of opaque and mysterious depth within these paintings offers one refreshing answer.

 Fumio Nanjo
Art Critic and Independent Curator
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