Ueno Masao

Ueno Masao graduated from the Shibaura Institute of Technology with a degree in architecture and studied bamboo with Honma Kazuaki. Since the 1980s, he has exhibited worldwide, installing outdoor pieces at the Grizedale Sculpture Park in England and the University of Zurich’s museum park. In 1991, his work was included in “The 20th Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art and Kyoto City Museum of Art. His work is part of the Ruth and Sherman Lee Institute collection.

The artist picks madake bamboo in the mountains of Japan, dyes and lacquers the material, and finishes with gold leaf and gold powder, a technique he adapted from traditional wood artists. Tinged in gold, his pieces transform with shifts in light. Many of his ideas are formulated using computer-assisted design software.

BIO/CV

b. 1949, Nagano, Japan

Exhibitions & Accolades

1990

Exhibition, Grizedale Sculpture Park, Grizedale Forest, Cumbria
1991

20th Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tokyo and Kyoto City Museum of Art, Kyoto
1992

Toride, Miyosi Village, Chiba Prefecture
Exhibited at Gallery Muu, Kyoto
1993

The Bamboo City, River Side Gallery, Tokyo
Exhibited at Gallery Casa, Fukui
1994

Snow Pagoda, Yamanobe, Yamagata Prefecture
Pagoda of Leaves, Hibiya Park, Tokyo
Bamboo Pagoda, Credo Hall, Hiroshima
Basketry Art Exhibition, Studio Com, Kyoto
Contemporary Art in the Peninsula Exhibition, Kamogawa City Gallery, Kamogawa
1995

Cherry Pagoda, Jardin de Wiltz, Luxembourg
1996

1996, Bamboo Arc , Commissioned Work, Manchester City Art Gallery, UK

1996, Bamboo Pagoda on the Snow Commissioned, Yamanobe, Yamagata Prefecture

1996, Circle in the Water, Awa Biennial ’96, Kamogawa City, Chiba Prefecture

1996, Cut the Woven Circle, Sakura City Museum of Art

Bend the Woven Circle, Sakura City Museum of Art
Exhibited at Gallery Isogaya, Tokyo
1997

Three Woven Balls, Yoshida-machi, Saitama Prefecture and Yamanobe, Yamagata Prefecture
Basketry Annual Exhibition, Sybaris Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
Chiba Art Flash 97, Chiba City Gallery, Inage
Exhibited at Comodo Art Plaza, Chiba City
1998

1998, 98 Cocoons, ARTE SELLA, Italy

1998, Polaris,Shibayama Sculpture Festival, Chiba Prefecture

The Japanese Aesthetic, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
Woven Nature Commissioned Work, Towada Hotel Entrance Hall, Akita Prefecture
1999

Three Woven Balls Commissioned, Tuyama Art Festival
Artist in Residence, Imadate Exhibition of Contemporary Paper Art Works, Fukui Prefecture
The Japanese Aesthetic, Duane Reed Gallery, Saint Louis, MO
International Contemporary Basketmaking, Craft Council, London
2000

Season of Camellia, Sakura City Museum of Art
2001

Formals and Contrasts, Sybaris Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
2003

Bamboo in Old Japan, Zurich University Folk Art Museum
2005

Weavers of Wonder, Naples Museum, FL
2006

Power & Delicacy: Master Works of Japanese Bamboo Art, TAI Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Hin: The Quiet Beauty of Japanese Art, Grinnell College, IA and Chicago Cultural Center, IL
Exhibited at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2007

Masters of Bamboo, San Francisco Asian Art Museum, CA
Solo Exhibition, TAI Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2008

New Bamboo:Contemporary Japanese Masters, Japan Society, New York, NY
2009

Intertwined:Contemporary Baskets from the Sara and David Lieberman Collection, the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Many Shapes of Bamboo III, Oita Prefectural Art Museum, Oita
2010

Intertwined:Contemporary Baskets from the Sara and David Lieberman Collection, Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY

Museum Collections

Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

ARTIST STATEMENT

If you turn the bamboo culm inside out, you can live inside the bamboo.

My house sits in a bamboo grove. On a hot dry summer afternoon, I can hear the subtle sound of explosions from the southern edge of the grove. It is the heated and inflated air inside the bamboo breaking the surface of the culm. In our bamboo grove the average eye-level diameter of bamboo is about 2.5 inches and the average nodal distance about 12 inches making the volume of the void between nodes of bamboo approximately 35 cubic inches. When I listen to this explosive sound I always think about the void inside the culm and wonder what the weather is like in this small void. Is it the same as ours; is it rainy or cloudy? People who live around the bamboo grove hear the sound of explosion and they sense a transparent light radiating from inside the bamboo. This is the beginning of the legend about the Bamboo Princess.

One day an old man was walking through a bamboo forest and saw a light shining from a bamboo culm. He cut it open and found a baby girl inside. He and his wife never had any children so they decided to name her Kayuyahime and raise her themselves. After that, whenever the old man went into the bamboo forest to cut bamboo, he found money in the bamboo culm.

Kayuyahime grew up to be a beautiful lady and had many suitors, but she was sad and showed no interest. Instead she looked up at the sky and said to her father, “I was born on the moon and angels will come to guide me back on the 15th of November.” Her father said angrily, “that is nonsense.”

When the 15th came, her father hoped she would not return to the moon, but as the moon appeared over the mountain, a gold light flashed and an angel appeared. Kayuyahime could not help following the light and slowly flew up into the sky hand in hand with the angel.

The old man and his wife could do nothing but watch her leave.

Asia Week New York