Japanese born artist Kako Ueda chose the versatile and fragile paper as her expressing medium because of its rich history in Japanese culture as well as for the meticulous process of cutting paper to make images and its fascinating result. The paper cut-out piece has the aspect of an illustration but also its own physicality, “a 2 and a half dimensional medium, so to speak”.

Speak Flower by Kako Ueda

Ueda’s inspiration comes from nature and its ever changing relation with culture; her intricate paper artworks depict organic beings-insects, plants, animals- being influenced by civilization, life and death cycle, and the human body seen as ecosystem, an idea based on the ancient Chinese and Greek philosophies.

One dear memory of her Tokyo childhood (shared in an interview for MyArtSpace) is the time spent playing in a wild garden that survived a while before the city development. That and the fact she chose other metropolis (the New York City) to live and work, experiencing a totally different culture, had a powerful effect over her art, which exudes a feeling of mystery while revealing the link between the whole and its parts.

Bitura

Kako Ueda studied at renowned Tufts University and the Pratt Institute but the most memorable and fondest educational experience were the photography course she took at the School of Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Her art has been exhibited all over New York, at Art Chicago and Art Miami fairs and also in Europe at Kiasma, Contemporary Art Museum in Helsinki, Finland.

Allure, Kako Ueda

Contemplation, Kako Ueda

Conversation, Kako Ueda

Dreaming of foetus, Kako Ueda

Eros and Thanatos, Kako Ueda

Gaze, Kako Ueda

Oracle, Kako Ueda

Portrait Series, Kako Ueda

Reciprocal Pain, Kako Ueda

Totem (detail), Kako Ueda

Tree of Heart, Kako Ueda

Tree of Life, Kako Ueda

Wasp and Octopus, Kako Ueda