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Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2022 ”physis” Installation View, Nigata, 2022 Photo by Kioku Keizo
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"Hikarie deck wall art project" Installation View, Shibuya Hikarie, Hikarie deck 4F, Tokyo, 2022
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"Hikarie deck wall art project" Installation View, Shibuya Hikarie, Hikarie deck 4F, Tokyo, 2022
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"Garden of Life - Eight Contemporary Artists Venture into Nature" Installation view at Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, 2020, Photo by mie morimoto
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"Garden of Life - Eight Contemporary Artists Venture into Nature" Installation view at Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, 2020, Photo by mie morimoto
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"Garden of Life - Eight Contemporary Artists Venture into Nature" Installation view at Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, 2020, Photo by mie morimoto
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"Garden of Life - Eight Contemporary Artists Venture into Nature" Installation view at Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, 2020, Photo by mie morimoto
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"Garden of Life - Eight Contemporary Artists Venture into Nature" Installation view at Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, 2020, Photo by mie morimoto
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"Garden of Life - Eight Contemporary Artists Venture into Nature" Installation view at Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, 2020, Photo by mie morimoto
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"mt art project at USHIMADO TEPEMOK" Installation view at Ushimado Tepemok, 2020, photo by Shinya Aizawa
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"mt art project at USHIMADO TEPEMOK" Installation view at Ushimado Tepemok, 2020, photo by Shinya Aizawa
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"mt art project at USHIMADO TEPEMOK" Installation view at Ushimado Tepemok, 2020, photo by Shinya Aizawa
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Wildness growing up in the city,
“Shanghai Urban Space Art Season 2019” Installation view in Shanghai, 2019
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3331 Arts Chiyoda, 2019, photo by Shinya Aizawa
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“Reborn-Art Festival 2019” Installation view in Kozumi Area Miyagi , 2019
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"30th Anniversary of the Yokohama Museum of Art Meet the Collection” Installation view at Yokohama Museum of Art, 2019
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"30th Anniversary of the Yokohama Museum of Art Meet the Collection” Installation view at Yokohama Museum of Art, 2019
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"Echoes from the Past | Tokyo | Berlin | Kerava" Installation view at Art and Museum Centre Sinkka, Kerava, Finland, 2018
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"Echoes from the Past | Tokyo | Berlin | Kerava" Installation view at Art and Museum Centre Sinkka, Kerava, Finland, 2018
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Mountains-Water and Life, 2016
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Habitat of Lives, 2016
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For the Next Breath 2, 2016
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For the Next Breath 3, 2016
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Feelings of Livings 5, 2016
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Roots and Routes, installation view at Aomori Museum of Art, 2016
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Constant Talking no.1, 2016
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Constant Talking no.2, 2016
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Spores and Water Veins, installation view at URANO, 2016
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Spores and Water Veins, instaWalk and Meet, installation view at URANO, 2016
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Spores and Water Veins, instaWalk and Meet, installation view at URANO, 2016
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The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2015, Tokamachi, 2015
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I Know the New Connection, 2015
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Animal that ate the Seeds of Forest, 2015
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Yusuke Asai : Seeds of Imagination, Journey of Soil, installation view at The Hakone Open-Air Museum, 2015
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Yusuke Asai : Seeds of Imagination, Journey of Soil, installation view at The Hakone Open-Air Museum, 2015
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Yusuke Asai : Seeds of Imagination, Journey of Soil, installation view at The Hakone Open-Air Museum, 2015
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Yusuke Asai : Seeds of Imagination, Journey of Soil, installation view at The Hakone Open-Air Museum, 2015
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Yusuke Asai : Seeds of Imagination, Journey of Soil, installation view at The Hakone Open-Air Museum, 2015
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yamatane, installation view at Rice University Art Gallery, 2014
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yamatane, installation view at Rice University Art Gallery, 2014
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Installation view at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2015
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Installation view at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2015
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Listen to the Voices of Yesterday Like the Voices of Ancient Times, installation view at Setouchi Triennale 2013, Inujima
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Son of the Earth, 2010
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Specimen - Clairvoyant, 2010
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yamatane, installation view at Rice University Art Gallery, 2014
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Installation view at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2015
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 enormous murals covering interior walls.
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 “Gimme Something/To Eat”(ANOMALY, 2020), “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 “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).