Yuken Teruya from Japan constructs intricate paper cuttings from waste materials: toilet paper rolls, shopping bags, newspapers. His artworks are caught in transitional moments, when a paper bag begins to evolve into a tree or an old copy of the New York Times has sprung roots as a newspaper garden.

Yuken Teruya manipulates everyday objects, transforming their meanings to reflect on contemporary society and culture. Cutting trees out of paper bags and cardboard toilet paper rolls, he creates meticulous and intricate art works, small and enchanting worlds, which relate to broader concerns.

In each bag and roll, the shape of a tree is created without adding or removing anything, just by cutting out and folding the paper from the bag itself. Teruya’s works explore issues such as the growing consumerism of contemporary society, depleting natural resources and other problems associated with globalism, including the threat it poses to localized cultural traditions and identities.

Born in Okinawa, Japan in 1973, he received his MFA from the school of Visual Arts, New York in 2001. In 2007, he had a solo exhibition at The Asia Society in New York. His work was included in Greater New York 2005 at P.S.1 Contemporary art Center and was featured in the Yokohama International Triennial.

Recent exhibitions include the Kunstwerein Wiesbaden in Germany; Free Fish at Asia Society in New York as well as various gallery exhibitions in the United States, Europe and Japan. In 2007, his work was featured in Shapes of Space, an exhibition at Guggenheim Museum New York. This fall, his work will be included in “Okinawa” at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan.

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Yuken Teruya