Vibrant Depths – Pointillist Tanzaku Artwork

In Vibrant Depths, Kotaro Yamada places two vivid fish across the elongated surface of a Japanese tanzaku board. Their strongly outlined bodies appear to move toward one another, creating a concentrated encounter between rhythm, colour, and opposing direction.
 
Green, red, black, and pale yellow marks accumulate across the fish in a pointillist texture. Rather than describing the animals naturalistically, Yamada uses colour and repetition to generate an intense inner luminosity, as though the forms were emerging from an imagined underwater depth.
 
The narrow horizontal format reinforces the sense of movement and visual tension. Combining disciplined mark-making with simplified, almost emblematic forms, the work transforms two fish into a vivid image of energy, confrontation, and mysterious aquatic life.