Gene Gallery is delighted to announce the solo exhibition “A Long Gaze and Thousands Glances” by Akiko Ueda, from 26 May 2024 to 30 June 2024.

One of the intriguing pleasures the concept of time carries, is that it is experienced by all beings while manifests itself in different ways in different beings; that it is invisible, yet visible to those who experience it; that it touches everything, yet is difficult to touch.

Time has aroused Akiko Ueda an infinite interest in it, and it has become the deepest and most fascinating essence of her paintings. Ueda’s paintings begin as intuitive explorations that unfold in the shifting coordinates of time. Accompanied by improvised, instinctive gestures and brushstrokes, the plane on which the two-dimensional images are placed becomes a space where multiple elements meet, multiple events occur, and multiple narratives unfold. The recurring motifs in the works-from plants and flowers, fragments of distant landscapes, solitary figures and animals, to man-made spaces such as parks or staircases-encompass both long gazes and fleeting glimpses, both thoughtful and whimsical, and bring both metaphorical and evocative meaning. Akiko Ueda’s work is a sustained, multi-layered observation and contemplation of the world between the real and the virtual, the imagined and the experienced, suggesting how one space transitions, fades, or shifts to another, becoming a pathway to approaching, experiencing, and visualised time. In the images, time finally connects and touches all, even though it still cannot reside and eventually escapes as always.