UPCOMING EXHIBITION

Eiji Uematsu | Hinako Miyabayashi

September 9 (Wed) - October 11 (Sun), 2026

Gallery 38 is pleased to present a two-person exhibition by Eiji Uematsu and Hinako Miyabayashi, opening Wednesday, September 9.

Uematsu was born in 1949, Miyabayashi in 1997. Working primarily in clay and painting respectively, the two artists come from different generations and work in different media, yet share a common stance: rather than unilaterally imposing form on their materials, they shape their work in response to the materials' own nature.

Uematsu has faced clay for more than half a century, since the early 1970s. His works retain the traces of flowing mud, the cracks and distortions left by firing, and the textures inherent to the material itself. Unbound by fixed technique or concept, his practice is guided by a simple attitude: responding to what the clay itself seems to say. Rather than carving his own expression into the clay, he draws out the beauty already latent within it, and the essential workings of nature. His works hold within them the accumulation of long stretches of time, and traces of scenery that ordinarily go unnoticed in daily life.
Miyabayashi, meanwhile, has been based in Berlin since 2025, where she continues to face painting anew. The new works shown in this exhibition carry forward her previous practice while taking up an attempt to move painting away from the wall. What concerns Miyabayashi is not "a painting hung on the wall," but the question of what it means for a painting to be present in that place. Two kinds of depth overlap in her work: the two-dimensional space depicted within the picture plane, and the physical depth created by giving the support thickness and projecting it from the wall. Where these two meet, the painting emerges as something that includes its sides, its shadow, and the gap between itself and the wall. As the image shifts depending on where it's viewed from, Miyabayashi tests what large paintings and small paintings each make possible, exploring the relationship between painting, the body, the wall, and the exhibition space.

Both artists make work not by bending materials to their own intent, but by taking in the changes those materials undergo. Works born of this dialogue with material shift in appearance depending on where they're placed and from where they're viewed. Neither can be grasped from a single viewpoint. By shifting position, gauging distance, and moving around the work, different contours and depths come into view. Looking becomes an experience that extends into occupying the same space as the work and confirming its presence with the body.

Through the intersection of two practices that cross generations and media, this exhibition considers what it means for a work to be "there," and how we position ourselves in relation to it.

[ Yasumi Hakoshima ]
Born in 1979. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria in 2000 and graduated from Tokyo Zokei University, Department of Fine Arts, Painting Major in 2002. Selected for the Gunma Biennale for Young Artists 2010 and participated in VOCA 2014 at The Ueno Royal Museum. The artist has held solo exhibitions regularly at nantenshi gallery, Tokyo, including “That’s the spirit! “(2011), “My Life” (2012), “Vivid living” (2014), “With the times”(2016), “Floating in the city”(2018), “Works on Paper” (2021) and “Let’s meet again” (2023). Group exhibitions include Contemporary Art “CRUSH ON LOVE” (2016) and Mythology of Retina - Mythology- (2018) at Sezon Museum of Modern Art.

[ Eiji Uematsu ] 

1949 Born in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
1972 Began creating relief works by exploring the qualities of clay, and later started working with ceramics in Tokyo
1982 Moved his home and studio to Marubashira, Iga, Mie Prefecture, where his practice expanded in scope
1980s‒present Has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Japan and internationally
Currently lives and works in Marubashira, Mie Prefecture

[ Hinako Miyabayashi ]

1997 Born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
2021 Graduated from the Department of Oil Painting, Faculty of Art and Design, Tama Art University
2023 Graduated from the Berlin University of the Arts
(UdK Berlin, where she was awarded the title of Meisterschülerin under Thilo Heinzmann)
2025 Completed her MFA in Painting at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts
Currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Exhibition Details:

Eiji Uematsu | Hinako Miyabayashi

Date: September 9 (Wed) - October 11 (Sun), 2026
Opening hours: 12:00 - 19:00
Closed on: Mon, Tue and National Holidays
*Please note that details are subject to change without notice. For the latest updates, please check our social media.

Venue : Gallery 38
2-30-28 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku Tokyo
tel: +81(0)3 6721 1505
email: contact@gallery-38.com