Yuichiro Ukai

Yuichiro Ukai was born in 1995 in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Following his graduation from high school in 2014, Ukai became a member of the distinguished Atelier Yamanami, a live-work facility that offers employment, training, and arts enrichment programs for individuals with neurodiversity or disabilities. Ukai is celebrated for his richly detailed drawings that incorporate references to manga and anime, as well as historical Japanese epics. Drawn on sequential sheets of brown paper, his dense images are built from memory to create a visual assemblage of seemingly eclectic characters. The artist incorporates a broad array of forms and figures from popular Japanese culture (samurai, yokai-monsters, Pokémon, and skeletons), but also includes his encyclopedic explorations of insects, dinosaurs, and popular icons into each frame. Ukai’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions in both the United States and Japan, at Venus Over Manhattan and Yukiko Koide Presents.

Submitted by Venus Over Manhattan