In 1975, Yuji Ueda was born in Shiga Prefecture, where his family cultivates Shigaraki’s famous Asamiya tea. Shigaraki is home to one of the Six Ancient Kilns of Japan, where he studied under the guidance of the great local ceramist Kohyama Yasuhisa. Since meeting Takashi Murakami around a decade ago, he has primarily exhibited at influential galleries such as Kaikai Kiki.

• Born: 1975
• Hometown: Shiga Prefecture, Japan

While Ueda’s works draw on the genealogy of traditional pottery, he attempts to foster the potential of his materials to the furthest possible extent. As a result, he creates ceramics that eschew “practicality,” functioning instead as contemporary art object. His work is well-respected among fellow potters.

Yuji Ueda’s Artistic Style

Through his experimentation with firing techniques, Ueda has created a unique process in which he employs whole blocks of Choseki feldspar or builds up irregular clay surfaces that can be fired in anagama kilns. Ueda plays with the infinite possibilities of his chosen medium. The surface of his sculptures blister, crack, and peel, like some kind of reptile shedding its skin. Ueda’s work can be read as a celebration of wabi-sabi (the acceptance of imperfection, impermanence, and the incomplete), and the storied history of ceramics.

Large peeling vessels, molting orbs, and dripping ceramic-bronzes come together to create a futuristic object landscape that exemplifies the artist’s recent explorations within the ceramic medium. The artist’s glazes flow off the vessels, cascading out toward the viewer or wilting toward the ground. To achieve this explosive effect, Ueda prepares layer-upon-layer of clay and different glazes, as though building the tiers of a cake. Ueda’s clay for these forms is sourced from his native Shigaraki or its neighbor Iga. The soil from these areas, one of the oldest pottery-producing regions in Japan, typically contains feldspar: an abundant rock-forming mineral that melts and swells during the firing process. Ueda will also add feldspar to natural clay or glazing to create his desired effect.

Ueda’s round and off-kilter ceramic vessels are made through a casting process that utilizes a plaster mold. This method, which produces these recurrent warped-orb shapes, innovates on the slightly askew configurations of traditional Shigaraki wares, which were celebrated for their beautiful imperfections. Since the late 1300s, Shigaraki pottery has been popular for use during tea ceremonies among tea masters and cultural tastemakers. These globular vessels are composed of three different kinds of clay, causing them to molt and crack, ultimately hyperbolizing the visual language of poetic flaws found in the history of Shigaraki ceramics.

Ueda’s forms are seemingly expressive, but retain technical and historical significance. The unique abstractions that the artist constructs from clay build upon the rich history of Shigaraki vessels and take this tradition to its natural conclusion with their experimental forms and explosive and dynamic glazes.

Exhibiting Ueda’s Art

Yuji Ueda has been exhibiting since 2008. These include his solo exhibitions: 2020 “Picking Up Seeds”, Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo; 2018, “Memories of Resonating Clays“, Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo; 2015 Yuji Ueda, Solo exhibition, Mario Hirama Soe Bana; 2014 Yuji Ueda’s Ceramics Works, t.gallery , Minato-ku, Tokyo, “Cosmic Eruptions”, Yuji Ueda’s solo exhibition, Pragmata, Tokyo; 2013 “Yuji Ueda Pottery exhibition Shigaraki no Tsuchi To Hi To Toki Ho”, Gallery Fukka, Tokyo, “Yuji Ueda Mitsutamari no Tschuchi”, Oz Zingaro, Tokyo; 2012 Yuji Ueda, Sunaba, Sundries, Tokyo: 2009 “Cafe Wakaya solo exhibition”, Mie; 2008 Gallery Karahashi, solo exhibition, Shiga.

Yuji Ueda participated in the group exhibition “Healing” dedicated to Kaikai Kiki artists, organized by Takashi Kuramaki, at the Perrotin Gallery Shanghai from February 5 to March 20, 2021″