Ulala Imai
Ulala Imai (b. 1982, Kanagawa, Japan) paints scenes drawn from both her familial life and popular culture. She works in her home, transforming her children’s toys, quotidian foods, and other household items into mysterious and lifelike subjects. A masterful oil painter, she relies on just a few brushstrokes to realize her luminous images. Arranging disparate objects in whimsical combinations, Imai’s subtle associations infuse her paintings with the latent tension of interpersonal dynamics. A still life painter, Imai turns the materials of her specific family life into repositories for the more universal human exchanges that surround them. Imai is a graduate of Tama Art University, Tokyo.
Recent solo exhibitions include Nonaka-Hill, Kyoto (2024); Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (2023); Karma, New York (2022); Lulu, Mexico City (2021); Parco Museum, Tokyo (2021); Nonaka-Hill, Los Angeles (2021); Uncle Brother, New York (2021); Union Pacific, London (2020); Oil Gallery, Tokyo (2020); Tokyo Opera City Gallery (2020); and XYZ Collective, Tokyo (2019). Her work is held in the collections of the Dallas Museum of Art; He Art Museum, Foshan, China; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, and the Ueshima Museum, Tokyo, among others.
Born 1982, Kanagawa, Japan
Lives and works in Tokyo
EDUCATION
2009
Doctoral Program, Tama Art University
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025
Karma, New York, CALM
2024
Nonaka Hill, Kyoto, Arcadia
2023
Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, Belgium, MEMORY
Aspen Art Museum, Colorado, A Lover’s Discourse
2022
Karma, New York, The Scene
Union Pacific, London, Reminiscence
2021
Lulu, Mexico City, Hola Strangers
Parco Museum, Tokyo, MELODY
Nonaka-Hill, Los Angeles, AMAZING
Wacoal Study Hall Kyoto
2020
Union Pacific, London, Gathering
Nidi gallery, Shibuya, Tokyo
Kyoto RC Hotel Yasaka, Tokyo
OIL by Bijututecho, Shibuya, Tokyo
Project N Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Hatudai, Tokyo
2019
boyAttic, Daikanyama, Tokyo
XYZ gallery, Sugamo, Tokyo, Lovers
UMEDA TSUTAYA BOOKS, Umeda, Osaka
READAN DEAT, Hiroshima
Shinjuku Takashimaya Art Gallery, Tokyo
2018
Keibunsha Ichijoji Gallery Enfer, Kyoto
Takashimaya Shinjuku Store Art Gallery, Tokyo
Nidi gallery, Tokyo
Merry-go-round Kyoto
2017
Greenpoint books & things, Yokohama, Kanagawa
Doskoi Kitchen, XYZcollective, Tokyo
The Steak House DOSKOI, Tokyo
Daikanyama Tsutaya Bookstore, Tokyo
NICHE GALLERY, Tokyo
2016
Nihonbashi/Shinjuku Takashimaya Art Gallery, Tokyo
Merry-go-round Kyoto, Kyoto
2015
nidi gallery, Tokyo
2014
boy Attic, Tokyo
NICHE GALLERY, Tokyo
2013
NICHE GALLERY, Tokyo
2012
Zoukyudo Gallery, Kyoto
2011
Zoukyudo Gallery, Kyoto
Boy Attic, Tokyo
2010
NICHE GALLERY, Tokyo
2009
NICHE GALLERY, Tokyo
Zokyudo Gallery, Kyoto
2008
Inoue Gallery, Tokyo
2006
Inoue Gallery, Tokyo
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
70 Main Street, Thomaston, Maine, A Particular Kind of Heaven
Palazzo Tiepolo Passi, Venice, I’m Not Afraid Of Ghosts
Ueshima Museum, Tokyo
Le Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France, Mon Ours en peluche
2023-24
Dallas Museum of Art, He Said/She Said: Contemporary Women Artists Interject
2023
Pond Society, Shanghai, China, PUBLIC PRIVATE, curated by Dr. Jareh Das
Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Korea, The Postmodern Child
GRIMM, London, United Kingdom, Close
2022
Crèvecœur, Paris, France, La proie et l’ombre
Max Hetzler, Berlin, Germany, Bodyland
Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, A Minor Constellation
2021
Fitzpatric Gallery, Paris, STILL TIME
Nonaka-Hill, Los Angeles, Natsuyasumi: In the Beginning Was Love
Uncle Brother, New York, SHINING IN THE LOW TIDE
The Hole, New York, Nature Morte
2020
Galerie Crèvecoeur, Paris, The Sentimental Organization of the World
ANOMALY, Tokyo, Echoes of Monologues
soda, Kyoto, New Intimacies
Ratio3, San Francisco, WITHOUT STOPPING
2017
Shinjuku Takashimaya Art Gallery, Tokyo, My Room, My Style, My Life vol.2
Zokyudo Gallery, Kyoto, The Place of Beauty
2014
The National Art Center, Tokyo, Shell Art Award Artist Selection 2014
2011
Yokohama Civic Art Gallery, Yokohama, Yokohama Minatomirai Exhibition
2010
Takashimaya, Tokyo, Premonition of Beauty 2010
Awards
2012
Shell Art Award, Kunio Motoe Encouragement Prize
Public Collections
Booth School of Business, University of Chicago
Dallas Museum of Art
He Art Museum, Shunde, China
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia
Space K/ Kolon Museum, Seoul
Ueshima Museum, Tokyo
Publications
2023
The Scene
Karma, New York
140 pages, hardcover
12 1⁄2 × 10 1⁄2 inches
2021
Ulala Imai: MELODY
PARCO Publishing, Japan
164 pages, hardcover
