Ceramicist YOKEY and painter/illustrator ROB KIDNEY are pleased to present a two-person exhibition, YOU and ME.
YOKEY and ROB KIDNEY are husband and wife who run a gallery in Tokyo while continuing their artistic activities together.YOKEY’s style is characterised by deep colours and soft beauty of form using traditional Japanese glazes, while ROB is known as an artist who freely paints a wide variety of vividly coloured characters.
YOKEY’s artworks express a fantastical world where plump female figures, plants and animals coexist in unity. She finds beauty in imperfections such as random clay formations, distortions and flaws, and reflects in her work the strong vitality and fragility or mystery of life in the greatness and robustness of nature.
Rob’s characters, some with vacant expressions, others with glistening eyes, can be seen to represent the natural human emotions of joy, sadness, surprise and confusion and mirror the diverse world in which we live. Anthropomorphising the small fantasies found in everyday life, it depicts an imaginary story in which all creatures coexist in harmony.
The name “YOU and ME” comes from the mutual respect between two people living as artists and gallerists, and the daily highs and lows they face. As two people with different ideas and philosophies who live together , they recognise each other’s imperfections, what they are good at and what they are not good at and complement each other in building their creations. This is a world where not only we humans, but all living creatures, including plants, animals and insects, build up a happy mutual relationship. We hope that through our creations, we can experience the joy of being close to each other and supporting each other, just as I am you and you are me.
In this exhibition, we present our individual creations as well as ceramic works created together as a duo. This is an attempt to explore the possibilities of creation by influencing each other as partners.

◆YOKEY(ヨーキー)
Studied ceramics since 2017. A ceramic artist who expresses everyone’s unbalanced individuality with dynamic and beautiful forms. Her free and captivating forms are infused with a playful spirit and love.
Since 2012, she has been the co-owner of WISH LESS gallery  in Tabata, Tokyo, where she curates exhibitions of artists from Japan and abroad.

◆ROB KIDNEY(ロブ・キドニー)
Rob Kidney was born in England and studied illustration at Brighton University, he is now based in Tokyo. His unique characters executed with bold lines and vivid colours have been used commercially in music, fashion and interior projects. Since 2012 he has been the co-owner of  WISH LESS gallery in Tokyo, where he curates exhibitions of artists from Japan and abroad.