Hitomi Uchikura

We stand before a piece created by Hitomi Uchikura, a work of great simplicity combining grace, essence, and irradiance.

Her work, a bit like Japanese paper flowers that open when dropped in water, resembles a large window opening onto other fields, shimmering like a mirror that is, alternately, depending on her fancy, concave or convex.

The low-angled light in all of Hitomi Uchikura’s work is key to her game. Lunar or solar light, even in her pieces made from glass, leather, or stone, there is always some astral element returned to the ground, a glint of distant planets.

It was in 1993 that Hitomi met the light, as she herself calls the moment. And since that day, she has never stopped thinking about it. Bright cells, we’re all made up of them. In each being, Hitomi sees light, that inexhaustible source of life, transmissible by mere glance or vibration.

Hitomi Uchikura’s light is never raw. Gliding over surfaces, it chases shadows out from forms, but without touching them. Ever so gently.

“Bring back the light, let yourself shine.”

Hitomi Uchikura was born in 1956, in Kagoshima, Japan. She completed a bachelor’s degree in traditional Japanese painting at Tama University’s Plastic Arts programme in 1980 and an MA in 1982. Beginning in 2006, she had numerous showings in Japan and in Germany, the two countries where she divides her time.

Awards and Grants

2011
Artist-in-residence at Areles sur Tech, Pyrénées-Orientales, France
Grant, Nomura Foundation for Solo exhibition at JDZB, Berlin

2009
Grant, The Asahi Shinbun Foundation for Cncert-Installation at Berlin

2007
Grant, The Asahi Shinbun Foundation for Cncert-Installation at Yokufu-en, Tokyo
The Fujimino Station Square Monument Competition, Second prize, Saitama

2003-2004 
Resided in France granted by Japanese Government, 
Oversea Study Program for Artist

2003-2004, 2006
Artist-in-residence at Cité Internationale des Art, Paris, France

1998
The 1st Sunburst Art Competition, Second Prize,
Hinomaru Driving School, Tokyo