Carrie Yamaoka — Spritz3000

Carrie Yamaoka
(b. 1957) based in New York, New York

Reflective polyester film, urethane resin and mixed media on wood panel
10 × 8 × 7/8 in.

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Reflective polyester film, urethane resin and mixed media on wood panel
10 × 8 × 7/8 in.

75 words: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam fringilla massa massa, sit amet molestie orci suscipit sed. Ut tincidunt eleifend felis sit amet suscipit. Nulla accumsan diam enim. Integer scelerisque, velit vitae accumsan tempor, quam ex vestibulum elit, eget volutpat elit ipsum id ante. Morbi condimentum quis elit in finibus. Donec accumsan feugiat varius.

Edition 1 of 7 + 2 AP
Digital print on synthetic chiffon
54 × 36 in.

In Stump, a large-scale digital print on synthetic chiffon depicts the cut base of a tree, its rings and weathered surface captured in high detail. The lightweight, translucent fabric hangs loosely, allowing the image to shift and ripple with movement or air. Yamaoka transforms a static photographic subject into a mutable object, extending her ongoing exploration of surface instability, perception, and the quiet poetics of absence, trace, and environmental change.

Edition 2 of 3
Archival pigment print
20 × 16 in.

In Archipelagoes (panel 8), the words “Heart Mountain” hover over a softly clouded, pale photographic ground. Part of a 25-panel series, the work juxtaposes place names with atmospheric surfaces that resist clear legibility. Yamaoka’s layering of archival pigment print with resin produces a mutable image, one that shifts between historical reference and abstraction. As in much of her practice, language becomes both anchor and veil, complicating how we read place, memory, and representation.

Edition 1 of 3
Archival pigment print
20 × 16 in.

Archipelagoes (panel 14) is a burnished field of golden-brown tonalities, its layered surface evoking weathered topographies or aged maps. The image, one of 25 panels, resists fixed interpretation—at once tactile and elusive. Through her meticulous process of printing and coating, Yamaoka creates reflective, light-sensitive surfaces that change with each viewing. The work reflects her larger interest in the instability of the image and the ways memory erodes, accumulates, and refracts over time.

Edition 1 of 3
Archival pigment print
20 × 16 in.

In Archipelagoes (panel 16B), a list of place names—Wallkill, Wildwood, Willow River, Winnebago, Woodland—emerges against a blurred grayscale background. Each name suggests a geographic or ecological marker, yet the indistinct imagery disrupts narrative clarity. Part of a 25-panel constellation, the work invites associative connections while withholding definitive context. Consistent with Yamaoka’s practice, it merges text, image, and reflective surface to question the reliability of what we see and the histories embedded in naming.

Carrie Yamaoka (b. 1957, Glen Cove, New York) is an artist whose materially inventive practice spans painting, photography, and installation. Working with reflective polyester film, resin, and other industrial surfaces, she creates works that shift with changing light and viewer position, implicating perception as an active, temporal experience. Often beginning with photographic or drawn marks—scratches, erasures, or stains—her process embraces accident and alteration, allowing images to hover between emergence and disappearance. Yamaoka’s work has been exhibited internationally, with recent presentations at the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. Her work is held in the collections of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She is a co-founder of the queer art collective fierce pussy. In 2024, Yamaoka was awarded the prestigious Maria Lassnig Prize, recognizing her decades-long contributions to contemporary art. She lives and works in New York City.