Fumio Yoshimura studied to become a sculptor at Tokyo University of Fine Arts, which excelled in teaching a strictly realistic decorative art tradition. After having emigrated to the United States in 1963, Yoshimura established his own studio in New York, and here he created detailed wooden sculptures reminiscent of utility items from daily life. Gradually, he moved towards more detailed, refined and intricate works, such as 'Shopping Cart' (1976) or 'Three Bicycles' (1984–85). The artistic contribution in his sculptures is a strong poetic undertone that together with the linden tree's bright surface and wood graining gives his sculptures an astonishing lightness. Yoshimura himself described his sculptures as “Ghosts of the original objects”. At the same time the works in their own peculiar way reflect – by reproducing everyday objects in a 1:1 scale – the 1960s and 1970s international pop art movement. The demanding craftsmanship that lies behind each sculpture gives them a strange condensed charisma that etches them into one’s memory.