OVERVIEW

Akiko Ueda（b. 1983, Kyoto, Japan）received her B.F.A. in painting from Musashino Art University in 2006. Subsequently, she received her M.F.A. in painting from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels in 2020, followed by completing her M.F.A. in Lithography in 2023.
Ueda approaches painting not merely as a means of reproduction or representation. Rather, her practice interrogates the transformative processes of phenomena and their catalysts.⁠⁠ Her early attempts to capture the continuity of time, movement, and events within a static image have, in recent years, evolved into a practice that incorporates unpredictable change and improvisation, exploring the shifting interplay between déjà vu and jamais vu. Akiko Ueda’s work attracted attention early in her career. She was awarded the Tamayo Iemura’s Prize at the Shell Art Award in 2009, and the Ohara Museum of Art Prize at VOCA 2011. In 2018, she went to Belgium as a recipient of the POLA Art Foundation Grant for Overseas Study by Young Artists. Since then, she has expanded her activities internationally, with solo exhibitions in Belgium, Shanghai, and beyond. 

HISTORY

2025
‘Fishing as a Mole Does – Until Stone Becomes Water –‘, KOTARO NUKAGA, Tokyo, Japan
‘Missing Sock Network’, Suju Gallery, Nagano, Japan
2024
‘A Long Gaze and Thousands Glances’, Gene Gallery, Shanghai, China
2023
‘The Merits of Hilly Walks’, Suju Gallery, Nagano, Japan
2022
‘Enclosure Undone’, Husk Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2021
‘A Walk of Broken Theatre’, Yuka Tsuruno Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2020
‘DÉJÀ-MAIS-VU’, CENTRALE.lab, Brussels, Belgium
2019
‘One More Glance’, A PERFECT SQUARE, Brussels, Belgium
2018
‘A Hole For A Wind’, Yuka Tsuruno Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
‘Ueda Akiko Exhibition’, Gallery Saikousha, Saitama, Japan
‘Neighboring Night’, Suju Gallery, Nagano, Japan
2016
‘Motionless Journey’, Suju Gallery, Nagano, Japan
‘Fuel of the Terrestrial Globe’, NICHE Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2015
‘Legs Grown from an Imaginary World’, NICHE Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
‘When a Painting Is Looking at Painter’s Sleeping Face’, Dai-ichi Life Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2014
‘KARA-Dance-KARADA’, Suju Gallery, Nagano, Japan
‘Forests Still Be Inside of a Seed’, Komoro Heights Museum of Art, Nagano, Japan
2013
‘Who Turns Over the Sheet of Winter’, NICHE Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2012
‘ARKO2012 / UEDA AKIKO’, OHARA Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan
2011
‘Until a Day When We’ll Return to Fields’, NICHE Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2010
‘Depth of the Inner Garden’, Gallery b.TOKYO, Tokyo, Japan
2009
‘Sometimes, Our World Must Be a Big Bouquet’, Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum, Aichi, Japan
2006
‘Ueda Akiko Solo Exhibition’, Gallery b.TOKYO, Tokyo, Japan 

2026
’NICHE BIENNALE 2026’, Wada Garou , Tokyo, Japan
2025
’Christmas Collection 2025’, Gallery1045 Sakudaira, Nagano, Japan
’Red Queen’, Gallery1045, Nagano, Japan
’Kitabi Chronicle’, Kitakata City Museum of Art, Fukushima, Japan
’Shinano Sankei Classic’, Gallery Nakatsuka, Nagano, Japan
2024
’Me in The Picture’, Kitakata City Museum of Art, Fukushima, Japan
’Shinano Sankei Classic’, Gallery Nakatsuka, Nagano, Japan
2023
’A Star at Dawn, A Bubble in A Stream’, Gene Gallery, Shanghai, China
2022
’Unforgotten Dream’, The MOONENS Foundation, Brussels, Belgium
’Tracing The Path’, Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum, Aichi, Japan
’No Longer, Not Yet’, Au Kalme, Brussels, Belgium
’Shinano Sankei Classic’, Ueda Le Vin, Nagano, Japan
2021
’THE MIRROR and THE LAMP’, Louise 251, Brussels, Belgium
’Automatism and Construction’, POLA MUSEUM ANNEX, Tokyo, Japan
’Keep in Touch’, FEB Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
’AORA:V nature/nurture’, AORA SPACE, online, London, UK
2020
’The Rite of Spring’, Yuka Tsuruno Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
’Let It Flow’, Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum, Aichi, Japan
2019
’Accrochage de étudientes’, Galerie 100titres, Brussels, Belgium
’Night Walk Day Sleep’, Gallery Medium, Bratislava, Slovakia
2018
’Kiso Paintings’, Tanaka-tei, Kiso District, Nagano, Japan
’100% de confluence’, The Pool/SB34, Brussels, Belgium
2017
’Metamorphoses’, Gallery82, Nagano, Japan
’Closing and Neo Vision’, Nagano Prefectural Art Museum（formerly known as Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum）, Nagano, Japan
2016
’N-ART’, Galeria Omotesando, Nagano, Japan
’A Dream of Cepiroma’, Gallery Hoshi Clinic, Fukushima, Japan
2015
’Na Hranici – Grenznah’, Skolska 28 Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
’Scent of Outside’, Atelier Sin, Telc, Czech Republic
2014
’XI TRIENNIAL OF AQUARELLE’, Novohrad Museum and Gallery, Lučenec, Slovakia
’Vie des formes’, La Fondation des Etats-Unis, Cité internationale universitaire, Paris, France
’Ohara contemporary at Musabi’, Musashino Art University Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2013
’Ohara Contemporary’, OHARA Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan
’Na Hranici – Grenznah, Czech-German art symposium’, Šumava/Bavarian Forest, Czech Republic/Germany
2011
’AICHI GENE -some floating affairs-’, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
’Vision Of Contemporary Art 2011’, Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan
’Haruhi Painting Triennial 1999–2009’, Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum, Aichi, Japan
’Collection of Ohara Museum’, Nagano Prefectural Art Museum（formerly known as Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum）, Nagano, Japan
2010
’AICHI GENE -some floating affairs-’, Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, Aichi, Japan
2009
’The 6th Haruhi Triennial’, Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum, Aichi, Japan
’Shell Art Award 2009’, HILLSIDE FORUM, Tokyo, Japan
2007
’The 5th Haruhi Biennial’, Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum, Aichi, Japan
2005
’The 4th Haruhi Biennial’, Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum, Aichi, Japan 

Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan
Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum, Aichi, Japan
Kitakata City Museum of Art, Fukushima, Japan
Nanjo Art Museum, Okinawa, Japan
Kurashiki Central Hospital Preventive Healthcare Plaza, Okayama, Japan
Art Centre Kvilda Civic Association, Kvilda, Czech Republic 

WORKS

NEWS

「Worlding − No Oars, No Shore,」_flyer

Akiko Ueda, Gentaro Ishizuka, and Keita Morimoto will participate ‘Worlding − No Oars, No Shore,’ at POLA MUSEUM ANNEX

We are pleased to announce POLA MUSEUM ANNEX will present ‘Worlding — No Oars, No Shore,’ from June 12 to July 5, 2026. The exhibition will feature Akiko Ueda, Gentaro Ishizuka and Keita Morimoto, each offering a distinct mode through which a world comes into being.      Worlding － No Oars, No Shore,   A single thread, trembling.  Waves rise, fold, become

Akiko Ueda ‘Fishing as a Mole Does – Until Stone Becomes Water –‘

KOTARO NUKAGA Tennoz is pleased to present ‘Fishing as a Mole Does – Until Stone Becomes Water –‘, a solo exhibition by Akiko Ueda, from July 26 through September 13, 2025. Born in 1983, Ueda does not approach painting simply as a means of reproduction or representation, but rather as occurrences that emerge in both