Keiji UEMATSU

Keiji UEMATSU(b.1947) visually express the invisible force and its relationship through various medias and objects encompassing photographs, videos, and sculpture. The artist's interest towards the relationship and role between the body and the object, the object and the environment, or all of them has been intensified over the past fifty years as a physics and astronomical interest in gravity, gravitation, and space. The search for the existence of human beings surrounded by enormous matter or non-material such as nature, earth, and space is expressed in the form of creating a small universe in which invisible forces act in the exhibition space. Keiji is influenced by 'Mono-ha', the art movement in response to industrialization and development that explores the material itself and its properties, and utilizes the object itself rather than transforming it. Powers that exist but are invisible by themselves become recognizable through the object and media used by the artist. The exploration into the relationship with the power is also presented in the artist's 1970s photographic work, which is based on the artist's observational behavior. The presence of invisible forces such as centrifugal force, the law of inertia, gravity, and attraction is visually expressed through the image of supporting the body only with arms and legs at the doorway or drawing a circle by a stone tied string.

Keiji UEMATSU awarded the 38th Nakahara Teijiro Prize in 2013 and held numerous solo shows at ARARIO Gallery I Seoul (Seoul, Korea) in 2015, Frieze Masters (London, UK) in 2014, Otani Memorial Art Museum (Hyogo, Japan) in 2006; and Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art (Fukuoka, Japan) in 2003. Participated in major group exhibitions at The National Museum of Art Osaka (Osaka, Japan) in 2020, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Gwacheon, Korea) and Royal Society of Sculptors (London, UK) in 2019, The National Museum of Modern Art (Tokyo, Japan) in 2018, Tate Modern (London, UK) in 2016, and The Museum of Fine Arts Houston (Texas, US) in 2015. Keiji UEMATSU's works are collected at Museum of Modern Art (US), Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain (France), Moderna Museet Stockholm (Sweden).