Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1979, Yasuaki Onishi currently lives and works in Osaka. He studied sculpture at the University of Tsukuba and the Kyoto City University of Arts. He received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2025 and 2010 and the United States-Japan Foundation Fellowship, including a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in 2010. Through his experience with making molds, he became interested in relationships between positive forms and negative space and in grasping not only objects themselves but also their surroundings. His works have consistently dealt with the themes of margins, volumes, and boundaries.

Selected recent solo exhibitions include: Stone on Boundary, Utah Museum of Fine Arts (Salt Lake City, USA, 2025); Stone on Boundary, Pola Museum of Art (Kanagawa, Japan, 2023); Permeating Landscape, Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art (Las Vegas, USA, 2019); Reverse of Volume, Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Kimball Visual Arts Center at Weber State University (Ogden, USA, 2019); and Hidden Landscapes, Coconino Center for the Arts (Flagstaff, USA, 2018).

Selected recent group exhibitions include: Schlossmediale (Schloss Werdenberg, Glabs, Switzerland, 2024); Transcend Boundaries: The Artists of the Taro Okamoto Award 3 (Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan, 2023); Sea Art Festival 2023 (Ilgwang beach, Busan, Korea, 2023); and ART OSAKA 2022 Expanded (Creative Center Osaka, Japan, 2022).

Participated in recent residency programs, including the NU’VEM residency program (Pico Island Azores, Portugal, 2024); Fukuoka Asian Art Museum(Fukuoka, Japan, 2022); The Artist Studio at Bellagio (Las Vegas, USA, 2019).

How would you describe your work, and what led you to become an artist?

Using glue, polyethylene sheets, copper foil, and other materials that are difficult to keep in shape, I reconstruct cavities, empty spaces, voids, and boundaries that go unnoticed in everyday life and present works that fill the space. By visualizing the inside and outside, the front and back, or the boundaries between them, I create works that explore the relationship between various things, such as humans and nature.

What are the main themes or concepts you explore in your work?

By focusing on other parts and boundaries instead of the object itself, a different visual experience can be obtained. It’s about seeing things from a different angle with a new perspective. The method of production is mainly based on the technique of molding. The mold is in the process of casting and is like a vessel waiting for something else to be poured into it. By leaving the part of the mold with the accumulation of actions, phenomena, and time, the void becomes clear and can be seen from the backside.

In my works, in addition to changing materials and inverting forms, elements such as actions, phenomena, and time are accumulated, and temporary materials that are difficult to retain their shape fill the space with transparency, indicating that the experience of seeing through a part that is not itself and surrendering the body to that space expands the viewer’s thoughts and imagination. By being amplified with the experiences and memories that each of us has and pouring them into the vessel, we will have the opportunity to look at this world from a new perspective.

I studied sculpture at university, and my experience of making plaster casts from clay was what inspired me to become an artist.

Do you find that your choice of material affects how the audience interacts with or perceives your work?

I am interested in materials that function in invisible parts around us, such as adhesives, copper foil, and polyethylene sheets. Glue is generally injected between things. Copper foil is used for the electronic circuit boards inside electrical appliances. The polyethylene sheets I use are used as a protective layer for painting and are thrown away after the painting work is finished. I find it fascinating how these materials can be transformed into sculptures that express the “Invisible.” 

How has your artistic style evolved over time?

I continue to create works that fill empty spaces. Works that use glue or polyethylene sheets are discarded after the exhibition and lose their shape. Recently, I have been using copper foil to make molds of river stones and arranging them in the space. These molds can be reused after the exhibition, and molds of stones from all over the world are mixed together. I have also recently started again a series of sculptures made from welded metal that I made in the early days. My thoughts about how my works should be preserved are changing.

What is your creative process like? Do you follow a routine or work spontaneously?

My work starts with imagining pouring my creation into an empty space. I need a simple floor plan, but I don’t do detailed blueprints or drawings. When I start planning and setting up the work, I work hard from morning to evening every day. Even if I don’t have an exhibition planned, I like to imagine installing my work in an empty exhibition space or architecture.

Have you ever experimented with a medium outside your usual one, and what did you learn from that experience?

I have tried various materials in my experiments, but most of them have not produced any results. However, it feels like as time passes, old experiments can sometimes lead to positive results. I want to continue creating and valuing my ideas and inspirations. I’ve been interested in video lately, but I haven’t yet turned it into a production.

Do you collaborate with other artists or creators? If so, how has collaboration influenced your work?

The copper foil piece “Stone and Fence” was created as a collaborative project between artists, companies, and research institutions. Materials and knowledge were provided by Fukuda Metal Foil and Powder Co., Ltd., a Kyoto-based company with over 300 years of history that manufactures metal foil and powder. I had experience creating sculptures by welding metals, but I think that encountering the materials of metal foil and powder was a major factor in developing my work. I am interested in collaborations with artists and creators in different fields. It is interesting to see my work develop in a direction I had never considered before.

Text & photo courtesy of Yasuaki Onishi

Website: https://onys.net/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasuakionishi/