Yusuke Asai

Yusuke Asai
Born in Tokyo, 1981. Lives and works in Tokyo.

Yusuke Asai continues with his unrestrained creation of art in all sorts of places, using everyday materials such as soil, water, dust, flour, tape, and pens. His works also vary in scale, which he freely adjusts to the host site and environment, and range from little drawings on the travel tickets and coasters to all-over works covering the entire room and huge murals.
Born in an endless stream, his primordial motifs encompass images of plants, animals, people, and myth-like entities that appear to be hybrids of plants or animals and human beings, all arrayed side by side, without leaving any gaps of blank surface. Some seem to display an eco-structure by, for example, having smaller plants or animals nested inside larger creatures just like macro exists inside of micro, the ecosystem in the universe.
Asai’s art may basically be divided into three series: the Earth painting series created with samples of soil and water taken from various places, the White Line series made by torching thermobonding sheet used for markings on asphalt roads, and the Masking Plant series of drawings made with a permanent marker on masking tape. His artistic activity is not confined to production by himself in his studio; he also undertakes big projects involving collaboration with friends, volunteers, or other third parties. As they take shape, his works seem to enjoy their own growth while accepting change, and the process of their production unfolds dynamically, as if the artist is trying to implant the “wildness” which urban settings are said to lack and require.

Asai’s main solo exhibitions include “Yusuke Asai Stardust KIDS” (Kanaz Forest of Creation Art Museum, 2024), “Yusuke Asai: Seeds of Imagination, Journeys of Soil” (The Hakone Open-Air Museum, 2015-2016) and “yamatane” (Rice University Art Gallery, Houston, 2014). Other major exhibitions and projects in which he participated in recent years were “A Spirit Of Gift, A Place Of Sharing” (Hancock Shaker Village, Massachusetts, 2022); “Art at Qiaoshan – Art field Nanhai Guangdong” (Pingsha Island, Guangdong, 2022); “Garden of Life” (Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, 2020-2021); “Shanghai Urban Space Art Season 2019” (Shanghai); “Reborn-Art Festival 2019” (Ishinomaki); “Wulong Lanba Art Festival 2019” (Chongqing); “Meet the Collection – 30th Anniversary Exhibition of the Yokohama Museum of Art” (Yokohama, 2019); “All Living Things” Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum (Shizuoka, 2016); Tobiu Camp (Hokkaido, 2015-2019); “Setouchi Triennale” (Okayama, 2013-2019); “Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2015” (Niigata); “Wall Art Festival” (India and Inawashiro, 2010-2019).
He won the Culture and Arts Encouragement Award of the Yokohama Cultural Awards in 2019.

 

Public Collection

Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
Ohara Museum, Okayama, Japan
Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan
Takamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa, Japan
Tsunagi Art Museum, Kumamoto, Japan
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design, Toyama, Japan
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan
KURKKU FIELDS, Chiba, Japan
Social Medical Corporation Asaka Hospital, Fukushima, Japan
MONTBLANC, Tokyo, Japan
Jean Pigozzi Collection
Taguchi Art Collection
Takahashi Ryutaro Collection
Daisuke Miyatsu Collection

 

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