Teppei Kaneuji

Teppei Kaneuji investigates the mass consumption of contemporary Japanese culture, sourcing materials from everyday life, found objects and manga characters to create sculpture that is at once playful and menacing. Kaneuji grafts together the detritus of overconsumption, creating candy-colored sculptures and prints with Manga-influenced lines that are the product of the overly stimulating, image-saturated culture in which he was raised. His signature series, White Discharge, (2002 onwards), consists of architectonic constructions assembling action figures, plastic food, and other small objects, covered with goopy white resin. Static yet dynamic in form, the unlikely allure of these bricolage entities lies in their embodiment of estranged elements; be they physical or psychological, attributes are layered, rationalized and given a new life through complex arrangements.

Teppei Kaneuji (b. 1978, Japan) lives and works in Kyoto, Japan. Kaneuji earned an MFA in sculpture at Kyoto City University of the Arts in 2003. His work has been exhibited at Ichihara Lakeside Museum, Chiba, Japan; The Japan Society, New York, NY; Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Marugame Geniciro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, Japan; Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto, Japan; Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore; Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China; Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, Japan; Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan; Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Hungary; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan; and The Museum of Art, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, among many others. Kaneuji was awarded the Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Hong Kong (2016); Best Young Artist Award, City of Kyoto, Japan; and the Sakuya-Konohana Award. Works by Kaneuji are included in the public collections of several Japanese institutions, such as the Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima; Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa; Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; The National Museum of Art, Osaka; Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; as well as several international collections, such as the Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland and the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, in Australia; the Ullens Foundation Collection, Beijing, China; and KADIST, Paris, France.