Ulterior Gallery is pleased to present falling angel, Hiroko Kubo’s first solo exhibition with the gallery opening November 10, 2026. This project room exhibition marks Hiroko Kubo’s U.S. debut exhibition, following our presentations at Feria Material vol.11 in Mexico City (2025) and NADA New York 2024. The opening reception is from 6 to 8 pm on Friday, November 13, and the artist will be present at the reception.
Do "savage" or "mythical" modes of thought still live on within us?
I draw upon the materials that surround us today—plastic, cement, iron, and mesh—to sculpt, much as prehistoric humans worked with the resources around them. These materials, through the touch of human hands, reveal unexpected possibilities. I embrace the labor, the ordinary, and the element of surprise found within common things.
Relics of the past continue to inspire me in the creation of new and beautiful things. At the same time, a history of destruction and conflict has persisted since ancient times, a pattern that has reached an extreme in our present era.
“Falling angel,” the title of the exhibition, reflects our contemporary era, in which mythological modes of thinking and visceral forms of creativity are losing their foothold in the mainstream discourse. Angels serve as intermediaries between the sacred realm and the world we inhabit. They bring good fortune to this world, but at times, calamity as well. They are often depicted in the form of children, embodying the in-between state they occupy: not fully belonging to either side of dualities such as the sacred and the profane, the wild and the rational, the pure and the impure, or good and evil. Yet when the image is inverted, an angel ascends toward the sky. For me, the act of creation is the hope that humanity’s power to create will ultimately surpass its power to destroy.
—Hiroko Kubo
Hiroko Kubo received her MFA in Sculpture from Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, and her BFA in Sculpture from Hiroshima City University, in Hiroshima, Japan. Kubo's works have gained significant attention in recent years and has been exhibited extensively internationally. Notable exhibitions include; Kanaz Forest of Creation Museum, Fukui, Japan (2026, solo); Aichi Triennale, Japan (2026); Art Site in Nagoya Castle, Aichi, Japan (2024); the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2024, Niigata, Japan (2024); Pola Museum Annex, Tokyo, Japan (2024, solo); Takamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa, Japan (2022); Hirose Collection, Hiroshima, Japan (2020, solo); Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (2019); and Setouchi Triennial, Shodoshima, Kagawa, Japan (2016). Kubo's work is in many prominent collections, including Takahashi Collection, Tokyo, Japan; Miyauchi Foundation, Hiroshima, Japan; KAMU Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan; Hirose Collection, Hiroshima, Japan; and Hiroshima City University, Japan.
Kubo will participate in KINOSAITO Artist-in-Residence in Verplanck, NY from November 8 through December 6, 2026. An open studio is scheduled to take place on December 5, from 1 to 4 pm at KINOSAITO.
