Works and lives in Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
The sculptor and ceramicist Megumi Yuasa began working with the visual arts in 1964, when he made his first pieces. The following year, he went into exile with his partner, Naoko Yuasa, on a ranch in the interior of the state of Goiás, researching the technique and producing with the land he had at his disposal. There, he produced his first utilitarian pieces, which, with the help of partners, were presented in 1968 at a solo exhibition in Goiânia. In 1971, back in São Paulo, he attended the Escola Brasil for six months at the invitation of painter Luiz Paulo Baravelli. Since the beginning of his career, Megumi has always been present at exhibitions of Japanese-Brazilian artists and at exhibitions focusing on the language of ceramics. Always imbued with a philosophical and political discourse, he is an artist with an anarchic bias in his practices, in that he incorporates other materials into his ceramics, such as metals and paints, which departs from the traditional scope of Japanese ceramics.
In 1979, he began working as a ceramics teacher. At that time, the couple bought a lot in Vila Campestre, in the south of São Paulo, where together they built a wood and diesel kiln. In the following years, the place began to host groups of students and artists for political, philosophical and artistic meetings. In 1982, he was invited to teach a ceramics course at the Universidade de Caxias do Sul, in Rio Grande do Sul. In 1984, he was invited by the Museu de Artes do Rio Grande do Sul - MARGS to teach the course Observação da Realidade [Observation of Reality]. In 1987, he had a solo exhibition at the Galeria de Arte São Paulo.
In 1988, he won the sculpture category award from the Associação Paulista dos Críticos de Arte - APCA. That same year, the couple were invited to form an artistic nucleus within the Cerâmica Aruan factory in Itu, where they worked for the next twenty years. Living there, they had a space in the factory where they modeled their pieces and taught the craft to the young workers who produced utilitarian items. The invitation to come to Itu came after Megumi took part in the execution of the panels by Cícero Dias and Fernando Lemos at the Brigadeiro subway station in São Paulo.
In 1989, he traveled to Portugal to teach a course at the Seminário de Cerâmica Brasileira in Lisbon. In 1991, he returned to the Galeria de Arte São Paulo with a new solo exhibition. At the end of the 1990s, he had his last solo shows at Skultura Galeria de Arte in São Paulo (1997) and at Galeria LGC Arte Hoje in Rio de Janeiro (1998). Among the group exhibitions, highlights include his participation in the 13th and 14th editions of the Bienal de São Paulo (1975 and 1977, respectively); in the 1987 traveling group show Encuentro de Ceramistas Contemporaneos de America Latina [Encounter of Contemporary Ceramists of Latin America], at institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art in New York; the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City; the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro - MAM Rio; among others. He also took part in the group show Laços do Olhar, in 2008, at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake, in São Paulo, and, in 2023, he was part of the group show O Curso do Sol [The Sun’s Path], at Gomide&Co. He has taken part in various festivals and meetings of ceramists, as well as exhibitions held on the anniversaries of Japanese immigration to Brazil. In 2024, his work was part of the group show Tocar a Terra, curated by Rachel Hoshino, which was part of the Diasporas Asiáticas program at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in 2024. Throughout his career, and to this day, Megumi Yuasa continues to give workshops, lectures and courses on the themes covered by his practices. In 2024, Gomide&Co held his first solo show since 1998, with a project conceived by Alexandre da Cunha, entre terras and Rachel Hoshino.
Megumi Yuasa's work is in the collection of institutions such as the Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, US), the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo - MAM-SP, the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo - MAC-USP and the Pinacoteca de São Paulo.
