Tetsuya Umeda

Tetsuya Umeda responds acutely to the structure, environment, and accumulated history of a space, creating site-specific installations and performances using minimal materials both in Japan and internationally. Materials such as glass spheres, ropes, light, sound, wind, and water generate physical phenomena that transform the perception of space itself. Visitors experience these works by tracing the layers of time and traces of function embedded in the environment, embarking on a journey through a new temporal dimension alongside the artwork.

Umeda's practice extends beyond museums and theaters to unconventional sites, including abandoned commercial buildings, traditional Japanese houses, caves, mountaintops, and waterfronts. In these contexts, he actively embraces, translates, and reconfigures physical constraints and geopolitical conditions, poetically and critically opening up the potential of each site.

His work encompasses diverse forms, from tour-based performances with theatrical structures and choir projects without a central point, to stage works focusing on theater apparatuses. As an improvisational musician, he also explores the reconfiguration of space through sound. All these practices are underpinned by a delicate, ethical, and poetic approach, weaving together space, objects, phenomena, time, and human interaction. Umeda's works are designed to allow audiences to actively explore the space, encountering the work through their own senses-an essential characteristic of his art.

While addressing layered themes such as history and systems, Umeda's work emerges as a lived experience mediated by the body and senses, combining lightness with depth. His multi-layered storytelling, informed by a deep understanding of visual culture, and his innovative use of materials and exhibition strategies have earned him international recognition.

Biography
1980 - Born in Kumamoto, Japan
Currently based in Osaka, Japan

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023 - Wait This Is My Favorite Part, Watarium Museum, Tokyo
2022 - [Title], OTA FINE ARTS 7CHOME, Tokyo
2020 - Tetsuya Umeda in Beppu "O-Tai", Kijima Apartment & Takewara Alley, Beppu
2019 - The Origin of Song, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka
2016 - See, Look at Observed what Watching is, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, USA
2015 - SCIENCE DE LA SUPERSTITION, Instants Chavires, Montreuil, France
2013 - Hotel New Osorezan, Ota Fine Arts Singapore, Singapore
2012 - Waiting Room, Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo
2008 - Criterium 73, Mito Art Tower, Mito

Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 - Oku-Noto Triennale 2023, Suzu, Japan
2022 - Demae Nabe for Jatiwangi Art Factory / Documenta 15, Kassel, Germany
2020 - Saitama International Art Festival 2020, Former Omiya Ward Office, Omiya
2019 - REBORN ART FESTIVAL, Ishinomaki
2018 - East Coast Land Art Festival, Tulan, Taiwan
2017 - Sapporo International Art Festival, Sapporo
2010 - Aichi Triennale, Nagoya
2007 - Portrait Session, Nadiff, Tokyo / Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima

Selected Performance Works
River Walk, KYOTO EXPERIMENT 2022, Kyoto
September 0, Takatsuki Performing Arts Center, 2022
Composite: Variations / Circle, Kunstenfestivaldesarts 2017, Brussels, Belgium
INTERNSHIP, National Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, Korea, 2016 / TPAM 2018, KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre Hall

Selected Collections
Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, USA