Ulala Imai’s “Pastry” (2025). Credit © Ulala Imai, courtesy of the artist, Karma and Nonaka-Hill. Photo: Kei Okano

View on T: The New York Times Style Magazine

The Japanese artist Ulala Imai, 43, considers food “a timeless, universal motif.” Working from a studio next to her home on the outskirts of Tokyo, she creates vibrant oil paintings of seemingly mundane objects from her family life, like her children’s toys or a plate of buttered toast, often layering them with wistful emotion. For her T cover, she brought together melonpan — a Japanese sweet bun coated in a layer of crispy cookie and embossed with a crosshatched design — and an endearingly worse-for-wear teddy bear, a recurring character in her pieces. “I tend to bring home worn-out bears I find at flea markets,” she says. “They carry a quiet sense of melancholy.” Imai’s work is included in the 15th edition of the Shanghai Biennale, which runs through March 31, 2026.