Recommending: Fuco Ueda

Fuco Ueda’s universe feels like entering a daydream; a world of female silhouettes, flowers and animals, where air blends with water as if they were one, and where time seems to be going slower than it ever will, here, on planet earth.

Painter and illustrator originally for Japan, Fuco Ueda manages to create this balance between the softness, the gentle curves, the airy color gradients and the intensity of this fantastic universe and the grave energy that comes out of it. I personally felt immediately drawn to the artwork as if something was pulling me towards it, and truly felt a strong feeling of immersion.

The use of color is particularly impressive where this duality is unfolding in front of our eyes once more. The explanation most likely lies in the techniques that she uses: while painting her artworks with acrylic, which explains the intensity of the colors, she later on proceeds to thinning it out which gives the colors this diffuse look. The use of color on the silhouettes particularly caught my attention. Using a lot of red to yellow gradients on certain body parts, it gives you the impression that you are looking at the silhouettes through a thermal camera.

This airy feeling found in her artworks also seems to be coming from the large and calm spaces depicted in her illustrations or paintings. Often underwater, or in wide sceneries where you can almost feel a soft breeze gently passing through your hair, the artwork gives an impression of immensity and slowness, as if gravity had changed and everything was floating.