Born 1973 in Nagasaki (Japan), based in Aichi.

Uranium Glass

Fushimi Underground Shopping Street

8.10(sat)-9.16(Mon/holiday)

Matsufuji received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Illinois State University School of Art in 2001. He works with glass and has exhibited uranium glass pieces since 2012.
Uranium glass contains tiny amounts of uranium, which make the glass emit a beautiful fluorescent glow under ultraviolet light and other energy sources. Production of uranium glass began in Czechoslovakia around 1830 and spread to other parts of Europe, where products such as dinnerware and vases were made from uranium glass. However, uranium glass production all but ceased and remains so to this day after uranium became a raw material for nuclear uses, used for both atomic bombs and nuclear power generation.
The high energy content of uranium has both positive and negative sides. The atomic bomb, a product of its military application, has killed, maimed, and sickened tens of thousands of people, and even its civilian use in the form of nuclear power generation has inflicted severe damage on humankind, as demonstrated by the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents. It is also true, however, that many of us today benefit significantly from energy produced from uranium.
Fascinated by the beauty of uranium glass, the artist runs his high-performance “filtering apparatus” to full capacity in order to create works that sublimate in the course of the production process even the negative connotations of uranium.