Ulala Imai (b.1982, Kanagawa, Japan) is a graduate of Tama Art University, Tokyo, and lives in Kanagawa. The artist’s still life paintings– whose subjects range from children’s toys to mundane foodstuffs such as sliced white bread– draw on both domesticity and contemporary popular culture to create highly personal compositions with universal appeal. Her work imbues quotidian objects with symbolic narratives and latent dynamics; reflecting on family, domesticity, isolation and imagination alike. Through her animated use of oil paint as a medium, Imai’s paintings are glimpses of the remarkable hidden within the everyday.

Selected solo exhibitions include: The Scene, Karma, New York, NY (2022), Reminiscence, Union Pacific, London (2022), Melody, Parco Museum, Tokyo (2021), Hola Strangers, Lulu, Mexico City, Mexico (2021), and Amazing, Nonaka-Hill, Los Angeles (2021). Selected group exhibitions include: Let’s See, Misako & Rosen Gallery with ROH, ArtSpace, Singapore (2024), A Particular Kind of Heaven, Karma, New York, NY, USA (2024), I’m Not Afraid of Ghosts, Venice, Italy (2024), Close, Grimm Gallery, London (2023), Nature Morte, The Hole, New York, NY (2021), and The Sentimental Organisation of the World, Crèvecœur, Paris (2020). Imai’s artworks are included in the permanent collections of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; The High Museum, Atlanta, GA, USA; He Art Museum, Guangdong Province, China and Space K/ Kolon Museum, Seoul, Korea.