Yu Watanabe

Yu Watanabe is a Japanese artist working across painting, drawing, glass, and installation. Based in a 120-year-old folk house on the historic Nakasendo road in Shiga, Japan, she draws on a life rooted in natural farming — growing rice and vegetables without machines or chemicals — and on the quiet textures of rural Japan. Her recycled-glass works and paintings explore the cycle of life: things discarded, mended, and returned to use. Each piece carries the light and slowness of the old post town where she lives and works.

Yu Watanabe (Ebihara) holds an MFA from Tokyo University of the Arts.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS, SCREENINGS
2026
Two person Exhibition Yuiko & Yu en CASUCA　‘The Future That Circles and Connects’ Tokyo,Japan

2025
Solo Exhibition at YANEURA glass　Shiga,Japan

Solo Exhibition "Memorandum" at ArtJamContemporary Tokyo,Japan

Two person Exhibition "hybrid" at ArtCenterOnGoing Tokyo,Japan

CIGE2009 — China International Gallery Exposition, Beijing,China

Japan Media Arts Festival, The National Art Center Tokyo, Japan

2008
Group Exhibition Girls’ Zone 3, ArtJamContemporary Tokyo,Japan

debut! ver. Yu EBIHARA solo exhibition, Tanikado Arts Tokyo,Japan

ART AWARD TOKYO 2008, Tokyo, Japan

2007
Nichibotsu kara Hajimaru koto, Nagano, Japan
Sustainable Art Project 2007 -Koto no Ba-, Tokyo, Japan

2006
Parking Lot Art Show Fort, Weimar, Germany
2005
Space -8:22 Art Collective, Weimar, Germany