Southwest Art – August 2019

Artists to Watch

THE EDITORS’ CHOICE FOR UP-AND-COMING TALENT

24 WWW.SOUTHWESTART.COM • AUGUST 2019

Donald Yatomi

Celebrating the uncelebrated

IF YOU’RE LOOKING for paintings
with traditional subject matter and
brushwork, artist Donald Yatomi is not
your guy. “It’s everything against tradi-
tion,” the Oregon painter says about his
work. “It’s saying: What haven’t we seen
on the museum wall yet?”
A visit to Yatomi’s website reinforces
his philosophy. There, the words Con-
temporary Realism of the Uncelebrated
appear in capital letters below an image
of a black Ford Mustang, loosely paint-
ed with loads of gestural mark-making.
The artist didn’t always paint with such
bravado, though. For a long time, he ex-
clusively worked with brushes, which
produced lots of soft edges but none
of the visual contrast he wanted. So

Yatomi added knives, spatulas, squee-

gees, aluminum rulers, and T squares to

his toolbox. “A lot of the subject matter

I paint is so quiet,” he explains. “I feel

like it needs a bit of motion and noise. By

slapping paint on, it feels like I’m agitat-

ing the air.”

Yatomi often seeks out urban and in-

dustrial subject matter that he describes

as mundane. He has a series of laundro-

mat paintings, for example, that evoke

memories of his childhood in Hawaii,

where living paycheck-to-paycheck was

the norm for his family, as were routine

trips to the laundromat. Today the artist

enjoys the challenge of portraying laun-

dromat interiors, with their monotonous

rows of washers and dryers and their

monochromatic palettes, in a visually ex-

citing way. “I like painting the ignored,”

he says simply. “The challenge is, how do

you make it interesting?”

The artist earned a degree in paint-

ing from the University of Hawaii in the

early 1990s and then worked at a steak

house for fi ve months, saving up just

enough cash to attend the school of his

dreams—the Art Center College of De-

sign in Pasadena, CA—for one term. The

very next term, he received a scholarship

that allowed him to stay on and continue

his studies. In three years, he earned his

bachelor’s degree in illustration with

distinction; DreamWorks Studios re-

cruited him right out of the gate.

Today Yatomi works as an art direc-

tor and designer in the video-game in-

dustry; in the evenings, he paints. As for

inspiration, it’s just about everywhere—

arcades, airports, auto shops, pubs. If

he hasn’t seen it hanging on the wall of

an art museum yet, says the artist, “Let

me be the fi rst one to try it. I’ll take that

chance.” —Kim Agricola

representation

A Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT;

Peterson/Roth Gallery, Bend, OR;

http://www.donaldyatomi.com.

upcoming shows

Solo show, A Gallery, July 19-August 19.

Two-person show, Peterson/Roth

Gallery, August 2-September 5.

cOrange Jeep on Lift, oil, 24 x 48.

eLaurelhurst Theater, oil, 71 x 48.