"Peel Back the Pop, and You'll Find a Counterargument" — Yu Uchida Solo Exhibition "POP-UP COUNTER" | Final 2 Days, Artist In Attendance

Yu Uchida's solo exhibition "POP-UP COUNTER" enters its final two days — today June 12 (Fri) and tomorrow June 13 (Sat) — at Gallery Seek, Caretta Shiodome B1F, Tokyo. The artist will be present on both days. This is your last chance to encounter the work directly alongside its creator.
"Kawaii" as Indictment — The *cool it* Series and the Art of Glass Casting
The centerpiece of this exhibition is Uchida's signature *cool it* series, created using cast glass technique — a process of pouring molten glass into molds, then cooling and polishing — mastered at the Glass Sculpture Laboratory of Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School.
Polar bears, symbols of a climate in crisis, are rendered as melting ice lollipops. The irreversibility of cast glass — once it hardens, you cannot undo it — serves as a formal metaphor for the irreversibility of environmental destruction. Wrapped in the cheerful visual language of "kawaii" consumer product design, each piece invites you in before revealing its darker premise: this cute thing is disappearing.
The gap between adorable appearance and devastating content is the irony at the heart of Uchida's practice. The works embody the contradiction of knowing about climate collapse while continuing to enjoy the very consumer lifestyle that drives it — a contradiction Uchida neither resolves nor condemns, but holds up for inspection with a wry smile.
19th-Century Color Theory in Metal — *fruit bowl* and Perceptual Division
The newer *fruit bowl* series takes a radically different approach using punching metal, drawing on the 19th-century French painting movement known as Divisionism — the technique pioneered by Seurat and Signac, in which small color dots placed side-by-side create optical mixing and vibration in the viewer's eye.
Uchida translates this 2D visual experiment into 3D sculpture. The geometric holes of punching metal become physical "divisions": from a distance, a fruit bowl materializes; up close, it dissolves into geometric pattern. The work fundamentally changes depending on your distance, angle, and the quality of light. This is not a visual trick but a philosophical inquiry into the nature of perception itself — using material division to probe the boundaries of how we see and know.
The Title's Layered Meaning
"POP-UP" captures the thrill of a limited-time pop-up shop, alongside the fizz of carbonated drinks (tied to the exhibition's HARUNA-sponsored sparkling beverage collaboration). "COUNTER" refers simultaneously to the physical bar counter where artworks and drinks are presented, and to a "counter" — a rebuttal, a pushback — against consumer culture and environmental destruction.
A celebration on the surface; a critique underneath. That is the Uchida way.
About the Artist
Yu Uchida (b. 1979, Tokyo) studied metalwork at Tokyo University of the Arts before completing a residency at the University for the Creative Arts (UK) and a master's degree in glass sculpture at Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School. She has collaborated with Tezuka Productions, Tatsunoko Pro, Ultraman's Tsuburaya Productions, Chiro'l Choco, and MILKBOY HARAJUKU, and exhibits internationally across Japan, the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
Yu Uchida Solo Exhibition "POP-UP COUNTER"
June 5 (Fri) – June 13 (Sat) [FINAL 2 DAYS]
Gallery Seek, Caretta Shiodome B1F, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Artist In Attendance: June 12 (Fri) / June 13 (Sat)
▶ Exhibition Details & Artworks: https://art-scenes.net/ja/shows/1630
▶ Gallery Seek Official: https://galleryseek.jp