Yuichiro Ukai, "Untitled (No. 59)," 2023. Colored pencil, marker, oil pastel, and ink on cardboard, 29 x 32 1/2 in (73.7 x 82.5 cm). Courtesy Venus Over Manhattan, New York.
YUICHIRO UKAI
Venus Over Manhattan, New York
November 17, 2023 - January 13, 2024
Yuichiro Ukai is a remarkable artist. Born autistic in 1995, he has been drawing anime characters, animals and folklore figures since childhood. After graduating from high school in 2014, he joined the celebrated Atelier Yamanami near his home in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. A live / work facility for individuals with neurodiversity or disabilities, the studio and art centre has provided Ukai with a job (cleaning public restrooms, which he proudly does) while supplying him with art materials, and a place for his drawings, paintings and sculptures to evolve and be recognised.
Initially exhibited internationally y Yukiko Koide Presents at the Outsider Art Fair in New York in 2018, the 28-year-old self taught artist’s work has since been included in group exhibitions at Harvard University Asia Center, Christian Berst Art Brut, American Folk Art Museum and Shiga Museum of Art, but this is Ukai’s first solo show. Offering 14 densely drawn compositions that feature demons, warriors, beasts and comical characters inspired by popular culture, encyclopedia illustrations, Ukiyo e-prints and mythological tales,
each piece in the exhibition is of the same size (29 x 32.5in. / 73.5 x 82.5 cm) and created using the same materials (coloured pencils, markers, oil pastels and ink on brown cardboard.
The 14 untitled drawings took more than a year to produce (each one reuqiring bout a month) and were created sequentially from memory by the artist, with figures continuing from one piece to the next at their borders. Displayed from right to left on the walls of the gallery in the order in which they were made - similar to how Japanese publications are viewed - the colourful works present an enigmatic tale brandished like an ancient scroll. Animals, ninjas (Ukai’s family descended from these peasant warriors) and skeletons all ramble across his picture planes while bumping up against “yokai” figures (ghosts and monsters from japanese folklore), cartoon personas from Pokeman and The Simpsons, anthropomorphic objects and quirky robots.
Layered above, below and next to one another, together, (Ukai’s imaginative figures construct a floating fantasy world, where the past amusingly mingles with the present - somewhat in the way in which the great Henry Darger compellingly created his own magical realm.
PAUL LASTER
