Untitled, 2020 / Glazed ceramic

Spring, 2020 / Glazed ceramic

Urara Tsuchiya’s practice explores the disconcertion between personal and social worlds, her often humorous work challenges the viewer to negotiate their own personal and physical boundaries. Her ceramic sculptures present realistically rendered objects, that appear as props in an alternate world.

Urara Tsuchiya practice explores the disconcertion that can be found between the personal and social worlds. Her work includes ceramics, performances and videos. Her performances often incorporates costumes, installations, poetry, sound and home cooking. These function as props in an alternate environment that make space for different behavior. She works with the boundaries of, for example, animal/human and adult/baby to strange and humorous effect. She is interested in challenging the viewer to negotiate his or her own personal and physical boundaries. Best known for her hand-painted ceramic bowls with explicit motifs, Urara also explores more complex and surrealistic ceramic sculptures. The sculptures present realistic objects such as suitcases, underwear or toothbrushes, but with an explicit scenario such as a lamp that looks like a three with animals and naked humans climbing on it or a sauna with humans in sexual and intimate positions. Tsuchiya (b. 1979, Japan) lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland. She did an MFA at Glasgow School of Art and studied fine Art at Goldsmiths University, London. Previous exhibitions includes a solo presentation at Frieze, London (2019), Glasgow International (2018), Trade Gallery (2017) and Union Pacific (2016). Selected upcoming exhibitions is among Ada Projects in Rome, Glasgow International and a group show at Vestfossen Kunstlaberatorium in Norway.

Website: unionpacific.co.uk/artists/urara-tsuchiya/

Instagram: @u.tsuchiya