Kohei Yamada’s My Screen Tests, presented at GR Gallery in New York from 15 May to 14 June 2026, brought together paintings and works on paper shaped by his interest in American Pop art, New York and the uneasy relationship between artistic value and commerce.
Pop References Without Simple Nostalgia
The exhibition drew openly on Yamada’s admiration for Andy Warhol and the visual language associated with American Pop. Repetition, humour and references to New York recur throughout the work, but the exhibition was not simply an exercise in retro style. Yamada used those references to ask what gives an artwork value and how easily art can become entangled with status, money and image.
That tension is especially relevant in a city where art and commerce have long occupied the same streets. Yamada’s paintings move between abstraction and figuration, allowing familiar Pop signals to appear without settling into straightforward homage.
New York as Subject and Setting
New York was more than the location of the show. According to GR Gallery’s exhibition page, the city functions in Yamada’s practice as both a source of imagery and a bridge between American and Japanese influences. The installation views also show how the works operated together in the gallery rather than as isolated images online.
For readers interested in the wider role of smaller exhibition spaces, our look at Oxford art galleries and the city’s creative life considers how independent venues shape the way contemporary work reaches audiences.
My Screen Tests has now closed, but the exhibition remains a useful example of how contemporary artists can borrow from Pop history without treating it as a finished language.
