Yuken Teruya turns frameworks and daily problems with brilliant insight that you unconsciously live with into artworks while changing the original usage and displacing its meaning. He utilizes daily goods and familiar objects, such as toilet paper tubes, paper bags of fast food restaurants, national flags, and chrysalis.
In his representative work, "Notice-Forest", he put some fine cuts on paper bags of famous brands and fast food restaurants, and created a tree in it modeling a real one, like a street tree. Teruya stated that since paper bags are originally industrial products made from trees, it reminds of memories of trees, and it is an attempt to regenerate the tree. Not raising voice loudly, the method regenerating a Godiva's gold paper bag into a golden tree of autumn colors blind us giving a warning quietly to the contemporary society which repeats mass consumption society and deforestation.
Teruya set his hometown, Okinawa, as the central subject of making works. In "You-I, You-I", an artwork of Bingata, it is sophisticatedly arranged with flowers and birds as a traditional motif of Bingata, the U.S. troops' fighters in Okinawa which could be the biggest issue in the post-war period, parachute troops, and endangered dugongs inhabiting in the surrounding sea areas of Henoko, Okinawa.
The apparently beautiful Bingata quietly suggests that there are the U.S military bases as normal scenery of Okinawa even in the present which accounts for about 20 percent of its main land and causing frictions against the local residents. While the Japanese term, "Yui", in the title stands for a cooperative system based on spirit of mutual support, the term also means "You" and "I" in English. It makes us to consider how people in different positions and with senses of value, like the Okinawa's dichotomy between a southern island's image as a paradise and as a place of military base issues, Japan, Okinawa, and the U.S. should coexist with one another.
Likewise in his work, "Heroes", he colored with Benigata portratis of famous people who are heroes of Okinawa, such as an activist of civil rights movement in Okinawa called Kamejiro Senaga, a popular superhero on TV called, Ultraman, and Barack Obama who has been an American hero started to live in the U.S. since 1999, an American aboriginal person called Geronimo, a famous Japanese pop star called Namie Amuro, and Showa Emperor. Dealing with very political themes, like rulers and subjects, worshipping people and worshipped people, and domestic heroes and enemies for other countries, he catches viewers' attention by vivid hues and lyrical expressions which make us realize diverse positions, senses of value, and big issues lying there.
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islands
Akira the Hustler, Nobuaki Takekawa, Tang Dixin, Masanori Handa, Hiraki Sawa, Tomoko Kashiki, Yuken Teruya 9 Jan - 13 Feb 2021 TokyoOta Fine Arts is delighted to present a group exhibition 'islands', focusing on small works on paper. The title of the exhibition suggests the Asian archipelago which is close in...Read more -
Be there
Akira the Hustler, Kiri Dalena, Yoshiko Shimada, Nobuaki Takekawa, Yuken Teruya 15 May - 7 Jul 2018 TokyoOta Fine Arts is delighted to announce 'Be there', a group exhibition featuring artworks that connote socio-political messages. 'Be there' is a slogan used to encourage people to participate in...Read more -
Gallery Collection
8 Dec 2015 - 16 Jan 2016 TokyoYayoi Kusama Yuken Teruya Takao Minami Akira the Hustler Jay Flores Ticar Rina Banerjee Zhang EnliRead more -
Sculptures
Zhan Wang, Yee Sookyung, Rinshiro Fujiki from SHINCHIKA, Yuken Teruya, Akira the Hustler, Yayoi Kusama, Haniwa Human Figure 22 May - 3 Jul 2010 TokyoFrom East to West, China to Iran, this exhibition will follow the cultural belt of Asia. It has selected three-dimensional works with wide-range Asian tones. Born in Qazvin, Iran in...Read more -
SLOGAN
Naoya Inose, Yuken Teruya, Yoshiko Shimada, Akira the Hustler 7 Sep - 10 Oct 2009 Tokyo -
New Acquisition
Masayasu Mitsuke, Nobuaki Takekawa, Hiraki Sawa, Yuken Teruya, Yayoi Kusama, Tsuyoshi Ozawa, Tigar Tateishi, Michiro Tokushige, Yuichi Higashionna, I-Chen Kuo 11 Jul - 26 Aug 2006 Tokyo -
Gallery Collection
Mio Shirai, Tomomi Maekawa, Yayoi Kusama, Akira the Hustler, BuBu de la Madeleine, Yuken Teruya 6 Dec 2005 - 27 Jan 2006 Tokyo -
Asu wa docchi da
Tomomi Maekawa, Takao Sakai, Ligyung, Yuken Teruya 22 Jan - 19 Feb 2005 Tokyo
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Yuken Teruya and Zai Kuning
"Collection Exhibition 2 Sea Lane – Connecting to the Islands" 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan 17 Jan 2023Yuken Teruya and Zai Kuning participate in the group exhibition, 'Collection Exhibition 2 Sea Lane – Connecting to the Islands' at 21st Century Museum of...Read more -
Yuken Teruya
"Mercedes-Benz Art Collection: Friendship. Nature. Culture" Mercedes-Benz Contemporary Berlin, Germany 20 Jul 2022Yuken Teruya participates in the group exhibition, 'Mercedes-Benz Art Collection: Friendship. Nature. Culture' at Mercedes-Benz Contemporary Berlin in Germany from 23th October 2021 to 21st...Read more -
Yuken Teruya
"Unterritorial Territory" Gallery 9.5 NAHA, Okinawa prefecture, Japan 5 Jul 2022Yuken Teruya holds a solo exhibition, 'Unterritorial Territory' at Gallery 9.5 NAHA in Okinawa prefecture from 15th April to 28th August 2022. Title: 'Unterritorial Territory'...Read more -
Yuken Teruya
"MOT Collection: Journals” Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan 13 Jul 2021Yuken Teruya will participate in 'MOT Collection: Journals” at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, from 17th July to 17th October 2021. Title: MOT Collection:...Read more