KIRO UEHARA

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2018.1　 Abstract Expression (ACT :Art complex center, Tokyo)

2018.4　 Kiro Uehara’s Exhibition (Gallery Hana, Tokyo)

2018.5　 Candy POP & Abstract Expression (Azabujuban Gallery ,Tokyo)

2018.11　 Kiro Uehara’s Exhibition (ACT :Art complex center, Tokyo)

Self selected works

photo by:Tadao Kazama

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年譜
	1948 born in Niigata. Studied at Tokyo Univercity of Art, Bigakko.
2010	“Kiro Uehara and Max Ernst: Surrealism in East and West”
2011	“Magic and Alchemy: Jan Švankmajer, Max Ernst, and Kiro Uehara” (The Art Complex Center of Tokyo, Tokyo)
2014	“Kiro Uehara Exhibition” (Kawanabe Kyosai Memorial Museum, Saitama)
2016	“Kiro Uehara 2016: (The Art Complex Center of Tokyo) “Surrealism and Its Development: Max Ernst and Kiro Uehara ” (Karuizawa New Art Museum)
2016.12	INK ASIA (Hong Kong：exhibited with Yuichi Inoue)
2017.1~2	Kiro Uehara-Abstract Expression in Ink (Karuizawa New Art Museum’s Gallery 1)
2017.4	Opening Exhibition-Abstract Expression in Ink (White stone gallery, Taipei: Exhibited with GUTAI’s artist,Shiraga Kzuo,Yoshiwara Jiro,Motonaga Kzumasa & Yuichi Inoue, Lee U-Fan)
2017.6~8	Crisscrossing East and West: The remarking of Ink Art in contemporary East Asia (MOCA: Yinchuan modern Art Museum: about Kiro’s 20 Ink Art were exhibited)
2017.8	Candy POP (ACT :Art complex center, Tokyo)



	Following Exhibition
2018.1	Abstract Expression (ACT :Art complex center, Tokyo)
2018.4	Kiro Uehara’s Exhibition (Gallery Hana, Tokyo)
2018.5	Candy POP & Abstract Expression (Azabujuban Gallery ,Tokyo)
2018.11	Kiro Uehara’s Exhibition (ACT :Art complex center, Tokyo)

年譜
1948	Born as Seiichiro Uehara in Nishi-kanbara District (presently; Niigata City), Niigata Prefecture, to the family of a sake brewery founded in the Meiji era as its first son. His father also collects antique porcelain and pottery, and his mother is from a family that once owned a number of calligraphic works by Zen monks and Japanese-style paintings.
1955	Enters Takenomachi Elementary School. In the fourth grade, the Van Gogh exhibition held at Daiwa Department Store in Niigata gives a deep impression on him and impels him to copy all the paintings shown in the catalogue with his water colors. Becomes fascinated with frottage and decalcomania, which he learned in class. Enters Niigata Municipal Hakushin Junior High School.
1964	Enters Niigata Prefectural High School. Learns oil painting at the school’s art club, copying Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory and Ryusei Kishida’s portraits of Reiko. Learns about Surrealism from Shuzo Takiguchi’s works. Starts writing poems.
1968	Visits the exhibition held at the Minami Gallery at Nihonbashi to celebrate the publishing of Selected Words of Marcel Duchamp, where Uehara meets its writer Shuzo Takiguchi for the first time and presents his own poem to Takiguchi. Later becomes acquainted with the painter Kao Shinohara and starts frequenting Takiguchi’s studio, assisting him with chores such as sorting out or repairing a collection of Takiguchi’s works, purchasing art supplies, sweeping the garden, and making jars of preserved olives known as ‘Noah’s Olives’ from Takiguchi’s home. Becomes acquainted with Makoto Yano, a painter living in Zushi City and his wife Michiko, and later her brother Tatsuhiko Shibusawa.
1969	Enrolls in the Department of Aesthetics and Art History, Faculty of Fine Arts of Tokyo University of the Arts during the time of Japan’s student protests. Becomes fascinated with the Italian language after studying the original text of Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects during an art history lecture, and starts learning Italian through self-study. Specializes in plastic arts as part of a practical training program. Joins the campus puppet theater company Fu-Fu and creates guignols and marionettes. Also starts creating copperplate engravings. Enters Bigakko (art school) to join the miniature painting workshop run by Tetsuomi Tateishi. Amazed by Max Ernst’s collage novels (‘collage-roman’) he saw at Takiguchi’s home. Joins Juro Kara’s Situation Theater (Jokyo Gekijyo). Joins Sargasso Sea Youth Delegation, a group consisting of Bigakko and Tokyo University of the Arts students, to perform in streets.
1970	Leaves the Situation Theater. Quits Tokyo University of the Arts. Forms and leads the Art Marionette Theater, mainly made up of his classmates from the university. Directs and performs his own plays.
1971	Graduates from Bigakko. Becomes an auditing student of Tokyo University of the Arts to take anatomy, biology and pigment composition classes. Publishes limited copies of Marionette, for which Shuzo Takiguchi and Suehiro Tanemura contributed their writings at Uehara’s request.
1974	Dissolved the Art Marionette Theater. Burns all of his works near a river in his home town, including his paintings, drawings and marionettes, except for his miniature paintings of natural history.
1976	Leaves for Italy. Intended to learn Italian dialects and Commedia dell'arte (masked Italian comedy), but joins a Japanese dance unit instead and ends up playing contemporary dance in Palermo three days after his arrival.
1977	Learns traditional clown routines from Angelo Corti, known for his character as Arlecchino at the Piccolo Teatro della Città di Milano, classic dance, ethnic dance and mime from Marisa Flach. Draws patterns at a textile company.
1979	Joins Mimo Danza Alternativa and goes on a performing tour around Italy and Europe. Meets the film director Federico Fellini and studies under him. Sees “Max Ernst Retrospective” at the Haus der Kunst in Munich.
1980	Performs as a dancer in the opera Turandot at the Verona Arena.
1981	Holds “Clown Night with Kiro Uehara” at the Teatro Olimpico in Rome. Starts a clown workshop.
1988	Returns to Niigata, Japan as his father’s illness becomes worse.
1989	Performs as a dancer in Moonlit Lotus, directed by YAS-KAZ, along with other performers including Sayoko Yamaguchi.
1990	Takes over the family business of sake brewery. Exhibits two of his oil paintings created with the Camaïeu technique in “Group 7 Exhibition” (Nagoya City Art Museum).
1991	Visits Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona, and receives a symbol mark and the name ‘Les ales de la terra’ (wing of land) for his new art organization.
1994	Becomes drama instructor in an art production workshop at the request of Niigata City Art & Culture Promotion Foundation, where he teaches for two years.
2003	Creates collages in black and white.
2004	First solo exhibition “Figure of Fantastic Animals” (Niigata Eya Gallery)
2005	Exhibits his collages in the group exhibition “Suehiro Tanemura: the World as a Fragment” (Span Art Gallery, Ginza).
2006	Helps collecting the correspondence and writing contributions by Miró and Shuzo Takiguchi at the request of the Joan Miró Foundation Museum in Barcelona.
2008	“Monster’s Utopia” (Gallery Craole, Niigata) Helps collecting and sorting ‘kamigata ukiyo-e’ for the National Museum, Prague.
2009	“Time-Kaleidoscope” (Gallery Full Moon, Niigata) Plans and produces “Saga Kobayashi Dances the Mystical House by Caoimhghin Ó Fraithile” for the Water and Land Art Festival in Niigata City. Performs outdoors wearing a straw costume representing the tradition of Ireland, where Caoimhghin Ó Fraithile is from. (Uwasekigata Park)
2010	Produces a series of large collage works in color. Directs and choreographs the dance performance DVD Torihime. “Kiro Uehara and Max Ernst: Surrealism in East and West” (Städtische Galerie, Museen Der Stadt Regensburg, Germany) Exhibits his collages in “Hommage: Suehiro Tanemura” and “Travelogue of Suehiro Tanemura” (Span Art Gallery, Ginza)
2011	Directs and choreographs Torihime and Shuyoki at Noh Theater in Niigata City Performing Arts Center. “Magic and Alchemy: Jan Švankmajer, Max Ernst, and Kiro Uehara” (The Art Complex Center of Tokyo, Tokyo) Publishes Story from Eyeland (illustrated by Kiro Uehara, written by Antje Gummels).
2012	Solo exhibition (Sakyukan, Niigata)
2013	Solo exhibition “Menagerie of Monsters” (Niigatashi Maki Kyodo Shiryokan) Directs, designs (stage design), and performs in Simon Yotsuya and Friends: Song Show (Niigata Prefectural Civic Center).
2014	“Kiro Uehara Collage Exhibition” (Kawanabe Kyosai Memorial Museum, Saitama) Starts the full-fledged creation of abstract paintings
2016	“Kiro Uehara 2016: Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Buddhist Painting and Calligraphy” (The Art Complex Center of Tokyo) “Surrealism and Its Development: Max Ernst and Kiro Uehara - Guest Artist: Jan Švankmajer -” (Karuizawa New Art Museum)
2016	“Kiro Uehara 2016: (The Art Complex Center of Tokyo) “Surrealism and Its Development: Max Ernst and Kiro Uehara ” (Karuizawa New Art Museum)
2016.12	INK ASIA (Hong Kong：exhibited with Yuichi Inoue)
2017.1~2	Kiro Uehara-Abstract Expression in Ink (Karuizawa New Art Museum’s Gallery 1)
2017.4	Opening Exhibition-Abstract Expression in Ink (White stone gallery, Taipei: Exhibited with GUTAI’s artist,Shiraga Kzuo,Yoshiwara Jiro,Motonaga Kzumasa & Yuichi Inoue, Lee U-Fan)
2017.6~8	Crisscrossing East and West: The remarking of Ink Art in contemporary East Asia (MOCA: Yinchuan modern Art Museum: about Kiro’s 20 Ink Art were exhibited)
2017.8	Candy POP (ACT :Art complex center, Tokyo)