Chie Ushio Artist | New Jersey, US & Tokyo, Japan

Figurative paintings on political systems and the body

Working primarily in acrylic on canvas, she creates figurative paintings that examine how political systems—healthcare, war, race, and immigration—shape emotional life and are absorbed into the human body.

All works American Dream FEAR Pain Human Rights Portraits
3 works · 2025—2026

The paintings in this series trace the fear that runs beneath American life: the fear of noticing, of speaking, of acting, and finally of dying. Working with national symbols, the flag, money, the cross, drained to the colors of mourning, I ask what we have agreed not to see, and what that refusal costs. This is not an attack on the country but an alarm sounded from inside it.