Neon Pooling Quiet – Yuki Tanaka | Fine Art Print

The stretch of wall above the bed, or the one in the hallway you pass twelve times a day and have never once looked at.

That is where this one goes. Last thing at night, first thing in the morning, a wet street with the lights running down it.

What is actually happening here

A Shibuya side street in the rain. The neon has given up being signs. It is only warm colour now — amber and rose bleeding out across black mirror pavement, cut in broad flat slabs where the knife went through. One small figure under an umbrella, far off, walking away.

Here is the part a quick look misses. Not one sign is readable. Yuki took the words out and left the glow, so you get the feeling of that walk home without any of the noise of it. Most of the picture is wet black and nothing. As she puts it: the empty part of the painting is not empty. It is doing the most work.

She builds the rain first, the light second, and the figure last — always one, always alone, always far away. A lone figure in vast space: the scale of a room against the scale of a person. Charlotte, who scores for us and signs her scores, put it at 7.67 and wrote: “Subdued neon reflections and a solitary figure create a compelling atmosphere.”

Getting it up there

A high quality print of a digital artwork, on archival matte paper with pigment inks. Smooth and non-reflective, so a bedside lamp gives you the street back instead of a hot white spot. Printed edge to edge, no white border — it looks right pinned up bare, or slid straight into a frame you already own. It arrives rolled in a tube, made to order, up to ten business days, and shipping inside the continental US is free.

16×12 in (41×30 cm) is $29. Most people take 24×18 in (61×46 cm) at $49, and it is already selected. 32×24 in (81×61 cm) is $69 if the wall is wider than the bed. A useful rule: over a bed or a sofa, pick a width about two thirds of the furniture below it. Over empty hallway wall, hang the centre at eye height and stop measuring.

One honest thing

This wants a bare wall in a quiet room. On a crowded gallery wall, or in a room already full of colour, it has nothing to breathe into and the rain stops working. If empty space reads to you as unfinished, this is not your picture.

If it is, take it home. Or go see the rest of what Yuki has made — or follow her, and the next rainy street turns up in front of you before anyone else sees it.

One is a piece. Two is a set. Three is a collection.

Almost nobody stops at one. A second work by the same hand turns a wall into a pairing. A third turns it into something you chose rather than something you bought. There are 6 other works by Yuki Tanaka available.

Petals After the Lantern – Yuki Tanaka | Digital Download$19River Pulling Quiet – Yuki Tanaka | Fine Art Print$129 – $229Price range: $129 through $229Gate Dissolving Indigo – Yuki Tanaka | Digital Download$19Shelter Between Houses – Yuki Tanaka | Fine Art Print$129 – $229Price range: $129 through $229Rain Becoming Lantern – Yuki Tanaka | Digital Download$19Gate After the Rain – Yuki Tanaka | Fine Art Print$29 – $69Price range: $29 through $69