Shigaraki-based artist Yuji Ueda discusses the work in his current exhibition at BLUM, his first-ever solo show in Los Angeles.
Hailing from Shigaraki—a region historically and widely renowned for an entrenched legacy of highly skilled ceramists—Ueda deploys, innovates upon, and pushes back against the traditional clay forms and processes that he grew up around. Creating large vessels that appear deceptively suspended in the act of exploding, crumpling, or melting, the artist plays with themes of strength and vulnerability. With colors that seem to crackle and pop, Ueda invents a new vernacular in the ceramic medium.