A prime mover of Japanese Pop Surrealism, Tokyo based artist Yosuke Ueno offers a highly elaborate personal world born from an experimental outlook not unlike that of a scientist. Bathed in a hazy cosmic glow, Ueno’s is a world beyond comprehension, probing into matters of life and death as well as the timeless relationship between man and nature.
Debuting at just 16 years old in his first solo show in 1994, Ueno has made his name with uncannily beautiful artwork swarming with esoteric references, a kaleidoscopic world populated by a whole host of equally fantastic creatures. Tapping into underground culture, manga, and graffiti art, as well as pop imagery and iconography, Ueno intermingles aspects Japanese, European, and American, exploring themes of symbolism and innocence.
Citing anger as one of his main drives to create, Ueno’s paintings are born from a feverish explosion of emotion, and within such an intuitive process both positive and negative energies coalesce to create highly complex worlds governed by their own logic.
Ueno’s work has been included in major exhibitions in Japan such as at the Shimoni-Seki Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, and at the LA Art Show, Art Fair Tokyo, Artfair Taipei, amongst others. Ueno currently lives and works in Tokyo, Japan.