Yuriko Asano Solo exhibition “Continuous Land Bears Fruit”
session：2025.10.17fri - 2025.11.22sat 13:00 - 19:00
*closed on Sun, Mon, Tue and public holidays.
venue：SNOW Contemporary / 404 Hayano Bldg. 2-13-12 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo
opening reception : 2025.10.17fri 17:00 - 19:00
SNOW Contemporary will present Yuriko Asano’s “Continuous Land Bears Fruit” from Friday, October 17, to Saturday, November 22, 2025.
Born in 1990, Yuriko Asano travels to different regions to explore local food cultures and the uses of plants. She creates paintings that reflect her interactions with the people she meets and her personal experiences, documenting the traditions handed down in those places.
These works go beyond simple botanical illustrations. They highlight the wisdom and knowledge passed down through generations in these lands, reflecting current issues such as the fading relationship between humans and nature, perspectives on non-human life, the cycle of life, women’s labor, and more.
Asano, who has received awards such as the VOCA Exhibition and the Higashiyama Kaii Memorial Nikkei Japanese Painting Grand Prize, is currently one of the most prominent emerging artists gaining significant recognition and attention.
In 2024, she participated in an artist residency at the Aomori Contemporary Art Centre in Japan, where she spent about a month and a half working on her art alongside artists from Japan and other countries.
At the ongoing Aichi Triennale 2025, she showcased “Continuous Land Bears Fruit,” featuring plants observed in Seto on large plates, partially applying plant ash before firing to highlight the connection between local vegetation and ceramics.
This exhibition features new paintings inspired by the nature Asano encountered during her stay in Seto and the daily lives of its inhabitants.
Asano spent this spring and early summer carefully observing the Seto region, a pottery-producing area with over a thousand years of history and tradition, blessed with high-quality clay for pottery and trees for fuel.
During her time in historic Seto, Asano was inspired by the changing human activities she observed through conversations with locals, which reflected the flow of time. She also found inspiration in the complex symbiotic relationships that emerged as new vegetation appeared due to natural environmental changes.
Through her fieldwork, Asano reveals the bounty of Seto’s land, shown to her through plants, along with her experiences, using ceramics and paintings that are rooted in this very place.
This exhibition will feature one large plate work and thirteen new paintings.
We warmly invite you to view the works focused on themes of nature and human activity observed by Asano in her second solo exhibition at our gallery, “Continuous Land Bears Fruit.”
Artist Statement
During my stay in Seto, Aichi Prefecture, from this spring through early summer, I encountered several rare plants.
Seto, where pottery production continues, has a long history of requiring firewood. This logging created barren mountains and sometimes led to deforestation and flooding.
However, this cannot be simply called one-sided destruction. Besides the wetlands formed by these barren mountains, wild plants also thrive.
Drosera tokaiensis, which secretes beautiful dew-like mucus to capture insects in sunny wetlands. Mongolian oak grows in gravel layers that are permeable to water and poor in nutrients.
The star magnolia, bearing red seeds in autumn, coexists with diverse species by inhabiting wetlands.
Additionally, black pines and bayberry trees, once planted as kiln fuel or erosion control forests, coexist with native species like the Japanese chinquapin, which has grown alongside shrines and temples since ancient times.
Black locust, introduced for its ability to grow in poor soil, is considered a troublesome invasive species, yet its nectar remains a valuable resource for beekeepers.
Through the diverse vegetation of Seto, I observed traces of human activity closely linked to pottery making and learned about the complex relationship between people and plants.
For the ongoing Aichi Triennale 2025, I presented a work titled “Continuous Land Bears Fruit” on large plates. By depicting these plants and partially applying plant ash before firing, I expressed the relationship between this land’s vegetation and its ceramics industry through the form of a large plate. In this solo exhibition, I have reimagined the plants depicted on those large plates, rendering them anew within paintings.
Through these paintings, I aim to portray the land’s bounty as revealed to me through plants—including those I observed while walking around Seto during my stay, anecdotes about plants shared by people I met, and my personal memories from the residency.
session：2025.10.17fri - 2025.11.22sat 13:00 - 19:00
*closed on Sun, Mon, Tue and public holidays.
venue：SNOW Contemporary / 404 Hayano Bldg. 2-13-12 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo
opening reception : 2025.10.17fri 17:00 - 19:00
SNOW Contemporary will present Yuriko Asano’s “Continuous Land Bears Fruit” from Friday, October 17, to Saturday, November 22, 2025.
Born in 1990, Yuriko Asano travels to different regions to explore local food cultures and the uses of plants. She creates paintings that reflect her interactions with the people she meets and her personal experiences, documenting the traditions handed down in those places.
These works go beyond simple botanical illustrations. They highlight the wisdom and knowledge passed down through generations in these lands, reflecting current issues such as the fading relationship between humans and nature, perspectives on non-human life, the cycle of life, women’s labor, and more.
Asano, who has received awards such as the VOCA Exhibition and the Higashiyama Kaii Memorial Nikkei Japanese Painting Grand Prize, is currently one of the most prominent emerging artists gaining significant recognition and attention.
In 2024, she participated in an artist residency at the Aomori Contemporary Art Centre in Japan, where she spent about a month and a half working on her art alongside artists from Japan and other countries.
At the ongoing Aichi Triennale 2025, she showcased “Continuous Land Bears Fruit,” featuring plants observed in Seto on large plates, partially applying plant ash before firing to highlight the connection between local vegetation and ceramics.
This exhibition features new paintings inspired by the nature Asano encountered during her stay in Seto and the daily lives of its inhabitants.
Asano spent this spring and early summer carefully observing the Seto region, a pottery-producing area with over a thousand years of history and tradition, blessed with high-quality clay for pottery and trees for fuel.
During her time in historic Seto, Asano was inspired by the changing human activities she observed through conversations with locals, which reflected the flow of time. She also found inspiration in the complex symbiotic relationships that emerged as new vegetation appeared due to natural environmental changes.
Through her fieldwork, Asano reveals the bounty of Seto’s land, shown to her through plants, along with her experiences, using ceramics and paintings that are rooted in this very place.
This exhibition will feature one large plate work and thirteen new paintings.
We warmly invite you to view the works focused on themes of nature and human activity observed by Asano in her second solo exhibition at our gallery, “Continuous Land Bears Fruit.”
Artist Statement
During my stay in Seto, Aichi Prefecture, from this spring through early summer, I encountered several rare plants.
Seto, where pottery production continues, has a long history of requiring firewood. This logging created barren mountains and sometimes led to deforestation and flooding.
However, this cannot be simply called one-sided destruction. Besides the wetlands formed by these barren mountains, wild plants also thrive.
Drosera tokaiensis, which secretes beautiful dew-like mucus to capture insects in sunny wetlands. Mongolian oak grows in gravel layers that are permeable to water and poor in nutrients.
The star magnolia, bearing red seeds in autumn, coexists with diverse species by inhabiting wetlands.
Additionally, black pines and bayberry trees, once planted as kiln fuel or erosion control forests, coexist with native species like the Japanese chinquapin, which has grown alongside shrines and temples since ancient times.
Black locust, introduced for its ability to grow in poor soil, is considered a troublesome invasive species, yet its nectar remains a valuable resource for beekeepers.
Through the diverse vegetation of Seto, I observed traces of human activity closely linked to pottery making and learned about the complex relationship between people and plants.
For the ongoing Aichi Triennale 2025, I presented a work titled “Continuous Land Bears Fruit” on large plates. By depicting these plants and partially applying plant ash before firing, I expressed the relationship between this land’s vegetation and its ceramics industry through the form of a large plate. In this solo exhibition, I have reimagined the plants depicted on those large plates, rendering them anew within paintings.
Through these paintings, I aim to portray the land’s bounty as revealed to me through plants—including those I observed while walking around Seto during my stay, anecdotes about plants shared by people I met, and my personal memories from the residency.
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