Urara Tsuchiya (b.1979) is an artist based in Glasgow. Tsuchiya’s expansive practice– spanning intricately constructed ceramics, immersive installations, costume, performance and video– is united by its subversion of kitsch or quotidian objects. Her work, seemingly playful at first, has undercurrents questioning boundaries of acceptability, tensions in relationships, and traditional patriarchal structures. She has found inspiration everywhere from a naturist sauna, seedy hotel rooms, or interactions on dating apps. By adopting narratives from personal conversations and experiences, and popular culture, Tsuchiya is concerned with storytelling and making us question our own concepts of what is or isn't acceptable.

She is best known for her hand-painted ceramics with explicit motifs, exploring the space between the surrealistic and the ordinary, and the humorous strangeness within this. Tsuchiya works with boundaries of concepts to strange and humorous effect, for example, the relationship between animal/human and adult/baby. Using costumes, poetry, and home cooking as props, she creates alternative environments and forms of behaviour while negotiating the viewer’s own physical and personal boundaries. 

Tsuchiya holds an MFA from Glasgow School of Art and has studied BA fine Art at Goldsmiths University, London. 

Solo exhibitions and presentations include Frieze, London (2019); Liste Art Fair, Basel (2018); TRADE gallery, Nottingham (2016).

Her works have been featured in group exhibitions at Galleri Golsa, Oslo (2020); Glasgow International, Glasgow (2018); Roaming Projects, London (2018); Queer Arts Festival and Pilot Press, London (2017); DRAF, London (2017); Kevin Space, Vienna (2017); Union Pacific, London (2016); GI festival, Glasgow (2016); Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh (2015); Evelyn Yard, London (2015); The Penarth Centre, London (2015); Transition Gallery, London (2014). 

Tsuchiya awards and residencies include Ishoken Ceramic Design Centre (2018); Shonibare Studio, London (2016); Hospitalfield House, Arbroath (2015); CCA, Glasgow (2014).