Tooma

  • Keizo Ushio, 'Oushi Zokei', Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail, Tooma 2022. Photo John Riddell
  • Keizo Ushio, 'Oushi Zokei', Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail, Tooma 2022. Photo John Riddell
  • Keizo Ushio with 'Oushi Zokei', Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail, Tooma 2022. Photo John Riddell

Keizo Ushio (Japan)

‘OUSHI ZOKEI’, TOOMA

Location: Opposite Brigham House, Possum Point Road, Tooma.

Statement: Each sculpture has its own memory. A torus is separated by three twisted surfaces, resulting in a single band.
It looks like three parts. It seems to be a reincarnation of the past, present and future.

Biography: Ushio has exhibited to international acclaim with his work represented in exhibitions, public locations and private collections in Japan, Spain, Iceland, Norway, Germany, Israel, India, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. Ushio’s work has proved extremely popular with Australian collectors and the public alike since he began exhibiting in Australia at Sculpture by the Sea in 1999. Keizo Ushio is one of Japan’s most highly regarded sculptors and is renowned internationally for his extraordinary granite sculptures. He graduated from the Kyoto City of University of Arts in 1976 and, upon receiving First Prize at the Henry Moore Exhibition at the Hakone Open Air Museum in 1979, began developing his signature style of sculpting. His carving technique is influenced by the mathematics of the Moebius strip, typically known as a one-sided, one-edged surface, which is notoriously difficult to create with materials of great weight and density.

Ushio recently became the second artist to become a member of the Double Decade Club for Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi, having exhibited 20 times since 1999. He has exhibited at Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe every year since 2005 and at ‘Sculpture Rocks’ in Sydney in 2021.

Keizo Ushio. Photo John Riddell.


Stage one of the Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail was jointly funded by the Australian and NSW Government’s Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund, under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.