Otherwise Gallery (アザワイズギャラリー) in Omotesando, Tokyo is hosting a solo exhibition titled "Tide pool" by artist Ryo Uchida from May 1 (Fri) to June 6 (Sat), 2026.
Following his previous solo show at the same gallery in 2024, Uchida has been actively embracing chance and change in his creative process, exploring new directions. This exhibition presents the process by which images emerge through the layering of coincidences, featuring new works that reflect the artist's current pursuit of paintings that remain in a state of unstable flux.
Embracing Chance and Change in Current Practice
Throughout his career, Uchida has grappled with the tension of colors and forms appearing on the canvas that sometimes evoke specific things or get absorbed into larger meanings. In recent years, his approach has shifted toward a collaborative relationship with those images and sensations — developing his work by accepting elements born from chance. His brushwork now appears more prominently than ever before, and there is a broader range in the way symbolic forms emerge.
This practice has developed through a series of milestones: winning the Meruro Washida Juror's Award at the 2020 Haruhi Painting Triennial, which led to a solo exhibition at the Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum (2024), and continues into his current work.
"Tide pool" — A Presence That Dwells in a Small World
The exhibition title "Tide pool" refers to small ecosystems that form when seawater washes over rocks and is left behind as the tide recedes. In these spaces, things that have gathered from different environments by chance coexist while carefully measuring their distance from one another. Something is alive there, yet what exactly exists remains unclear — the word carries this kind of ambiguous, uncertain presence. For Uchida, this phenomenon overlaps with memories of time spent at the seaside during his childhood, and has become a key image in his current practice.
The act of pouring water and paint onto a canvas repeats like waves, giving rise to unexpected forms and relationships on the surface. The boundary between the one who paints and what is being painted also wavers, and as ground and figure exchange places like sea and land, images continue to be generated and transformed. The exhibition presents new works in which the very process of images emerging through accumulated coincidences is shown — paintings not as finished forms, but as a state in which relationships keep arising.
Artist's Statement
"When I spot a puddle after the rain, I find myself staring, feeling as though something is swimming inside it. Each time, memories of playing on the shore as a child come flooding back. When high tide washes over and recedes, tide pools form in the hollows of rocks along the coast. Peering in, you can see the creatures left behind, squirming about. In this small space cut off from the sea, things that ended up there by chance coexist while cautiously measuring their distance from one another. It looks like a beautiful microcosm of the sea, yet there is something mismatched about it — like a counterfeit. When I pour generous amounts of water and paint onto a pure white canvas, I am the repeating waves, the hollow of a rock, the writhing creatures, the delighted observer, and the endless sea all at once. This transformation is not carried out to depict something predetermined, but rather for sudden expressions and unexpected encounters. It is performed again and again, waiting for the moment when ground and figure exchange places like sea and land." — Ryo Uchida
Exhibition Details
Ryo Uchida Solo Exhibition "Tide pool"
- Dates: May 1 (Fri) – June 6 (Sat), 2026
- Opening Reception: May 1 (Fri), 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Artist Attendance: May 1 (Fri) and May 2 (Sat)
- Venue: Otherwise Gallery (Ohara School Kaikan B1F, 5-7-17 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo)
- Phone: 03-3797-1507
- Hours: 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM (Closed Sun, Mon, Tue)
- Exhibition info: https://otherwise-gallery.com/jp/tokyo/859/
About the Artist: Ryo Uchida
Born in Shizuoka Prefecture. Graduated from the Department of Oil Painting, Musashino Art University in 2015. Using the drips and brushstrokes of paint and the coincidences of everyday life as starting points, Uchida creates works that focus on the relationships between multiple elements. His practice explores the instability and slippage of perception, incorporating ambiguous figures and Japanese-English loanwords, pursuing an approach related to the deconstruction of images. Recent solo exhibitions include "Two in the Back Garden, Two in the Garden" (2025, art/akiya nin-nin, Tokyo), "Wind Window" (2024, Otherwise Gallery, Tokyo), and "Smoke and Mirrors" (2024, Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum, Aichi). Since 2023, he has been based between Nagano Prefecture and Tokyo.
