Biography
Sosuke Ueta (植田 爽介, born 1994 in Kagawa Prefecture) is a Japanese contemporary artist and printmaker based in Tokyo. Working across copper-plate etching, lithography, and installation, he uses the industrial techniques of printmaking and reproduction to explore the relationship between people and nature, taking as a recurring point of departure the seascapes of the Seto Inland Sea near his hometown.
Ueta's training traces a Kagawa–Tokyo–Bratislava axis. He completed a BFA in Printmaking at Tama Art University in 2016, then studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2017 as an exchange student on an ERASMUS+ scholarship, before earning his MFA in Printmaking at Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geidai) in 2019. He continued at Geidai as a research student in printmaking in 2020 and took part in the Tokyo University of the Arts × School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) residency in Chicago. His mature practice treats intaglio and lithographic processes as starting points for work that extends the flat printed surface into three dimensions through sculpture and installation; the solo exhibition '(whereabouts of the) ANIMA' (Taku Sometani Gallery, Tokyo, 2019) is characteristic of this direction.
Ueta's work has been recognized through a range of awards and scholarships: the Turner Award Excellence Prize (2014), the Tama Art University Graduation Exhibition Excellence Work Prize (2016), finalist selection at the Bangkok Triennale International Print and Drawing Exhibition (2018), the Kuma Foundation's second-cohort creator scholarship (2018), and the Art Work With Merck 2018 scholarship; his prints have been acquired repeatedly through the Mitsubishi Corporation Art Gate Program between 2013 and 2024. In 2021 he was selected for the Agency for Cultural Affairs' Overseas Training Program for emerging artists. His exhibitions span Japan and abroad — including 'RE: habilitation' at Geidai Art Plaza, Tokyo (2024) and 'satellite' (2023), group exhibitions in countries including Thailand, Finland, Germany, Poland, Ireland, and China, and participation in the Nakanojo Biennale in Gunma. His work is held in public collections including Tama Art University, Tokyo University of the Arts, the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Silpakorn University in Thailand, the Ishikawa paper (washi) collection, and Minakami Town Hall.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1994
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 1
Frequently Asked Questions
Sosuke Ueta (植田 爽介, born 1994 in Kagawa Prefecture) is a Japanese contemporary artist and printmaker based in Tokyo. Working across copper-plate etching, lithography, and installation, he uses the industrial techniques of printmaking and reproduction to explore the relationship between people and nature, taking as a recurring point of departure the seascapes of the Seto Inland Sea near his hometown.
Sosuke Ueta was active born in 1994. They were associated with the Contemporary Mokuhanga movement.
Sosuke Ueta's work was shaped by the Contemporary Mokuhanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Contemporary Mokuhanga: Contemporary mokuhanga (literally "wood-block print") encompasses artists working from approximately 1970 to the present who continue or reinvent traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques.