Keiji UEMATSU

Keiji UEMATSU (b.1947) visually express the invisible force and its relationship through various medias and objects encompassing photographs, videos, and sculpture. The artist's interest towards the relationship and role between the body and the object, the object and the environment, or all of them has been intensified over the past fifty years as a physics and astronomical interest in gravity, gravitation, and space. The search for the existence of human beings surrounded by enormous matter or non-material such as nature, earth, and space is expressed in the form of creating a small universe in which invisible forces act in the exhibition space. Keiji is influenced by 'Mono-ha', the art movement in response to industrialization and development that explores the material itself and its properties, and utilizes the object itself rather than transforming it. Powers that exist but are invisible by themselves become recognizable through the object and media used by the artist. The exploration into the relationship with the power is also presented in the artist's 1970s photographic work, which is based on the artist's observational behavior. The presence of invisible forces such as centrifugal force, the law of inertia, gravity, and attraction is visually expressed through the image of supporting the body only with arms and legs at the doorway or drawing a circle by a stone tied string.

 

UEMATSU was born in 1947 in Kobe, Japan, and currently lives and works in Osaka, Japan. He graduated from the Department of Education, Fine Art, Kobe University in 1969. He has held solo exhibitions at institutions including the France Pavilion, Expo 2025 Osaka (Osaka, Japan, 2025), Coldefy Studio (Paris, France, 2024), Baudoin Lebon (Paris, France, 2023), Kirishima Open-Air Museum (Kagoshima, Japan, 2022), Ashiya City Museum of Art and History (Ashiya, Japan, 2021), Simon Lee Gallery (New York, US, 2019; London, UK, 2016), and ARARIO GALLERY (Seoul; Cheonan, Korea, 2015), and more. He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions at institutions such as the MoMA (New York, US, 2024), Oku-Noto Triennale (Ishikawa, Japan, 2023), Helsinki Art Museum (Helsinki, Finland, 2022), The National Museum of Art (Osaka, Japan, 2020), National Gallery Singapore (Singapore, 2019), National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Gwacheon, Korea, 2019), The National Museum of Modern Art (Tokyo, Japan, 2018), and Tate Modern (London, UK, 2016), among others. UEMATSU is the recipient of the 38th Nakahara Teijiro Prize (2013), Kobe City Cultural Prize (2010), Outdoor Sculpture in Tataragi Grand Prize (1999), and the Museum of Modern Art, Hyogo Prize (1997). His works are held in major collections such as The Museum of Modern Art (New York, US), Tate Modern (London, UK), Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain (Paris, France), Moderna Museet (Stockholm, Sweden), The National Museum of Art (Osaka, Japan), Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (Kyoto, Japan), and Busan Metropolitan Art Museum (Busan, Korea).