Kiro Uehara was born in 1948 in Niigata Prefecture. He graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts and in 1976, he moved to Italy to study Commedia dell’Arte (classic Italian comedy performed with masks). After returning to Japan, Uehara based himself in Niigata and began creating a series of collage works by reassembling pop culture images. In recent years he has been working on abstract expressionist paintings, including “Kiro Uehara and Max Ernst: Surrealism in East and West” (Städtische Galerie, Museen Der Stadt Regensburg, Germany) in 2010 and in 2016, “Surrealism and Its Development: Max Ernst and Kiro Uehara Special Invitation: Jan Švankmajer” (Karuizawa New Art Museum).