PROFILE

Mai Miyake is a Japanese artist who brings a distinctive perspective to the delicacy and depth of traditional Japanese art and craft. Her practice moves seamlessly across temporal frameworks—past, present, and future—while continually questioning the essence of things and the universality of expression.

While maintaining a consistently refined and lyrical visual language, her works unsettle established systems of value and engage the viewer at a subconscious level. Both innovative and imbued with a sense of familiarity, her practice constructs multi-layered symbolic and narrative structures that generate a distinctive perceptual space between the work and its audience. Working across diverse media—including antiques, craft, contemporary art, product design, and literature—she traverses disciplinary boundaries, reconstructing the discourse of Japanese art through her own interpretation while moving fluidly between tradition and innovation.

Her works have been presented in major institutional contexts, including Art Tower Mito (Criterion 65, 2005), Maison Hermès (2007), POLA Museum of Art (2013), the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (2018), Busan Museum of Art (2018), and Oita Prefectural Art Museum (2018). She has also participated in international cultural platforms such as the ICOM Kyoto Congress / Nijo Castle (2019) and the Saitama International Art Festival (2020), as well as exhibitions at Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery (2021) and Chiba City Museum of Art (2022). In 2025, she presented the installation work Suishin as part of EXPO PUBLIC ART at the Osaka World Expo, further extending her practice into the public realm.

Her solo exhibitions have been held at venues including GINZA SIX (Long Long Time Ago), P.G.C.D (Swan Song), MtK (Kuroyagi Shiroyagi Tsushin), Gallery Nanohana (Spring Announcement), Kakiden Gallery (Traces of Dreams), Shibuya Kurodatoen (Kamiari), Kochukyo (Kizashi), and Murakoshi Gallery (Hana yori Dango), among others.

In parallel with her artistic production, Miyake has developed an expanded practice encompassing curatorial and commissioned projects. In 2026, she was responsible for the art direction and artworks of Starbucks Coffee Kyoto Maruyama Park, where she incorporated reclaimed coffee sacks into a spatial composition that reflects the relationship between Kyoto’s cultural traditions and the natural environment of Maruyama Park. She curated HANKYU ART FAIR 2024, and since 2023 has led the ongoing project THIS IS NATURE at Kyoto Takashimaya S.C. [T8]. Her previous projects include the SHISEIDO THE STORE Window Gallery (2018–2020) and Cross Frontier, Kyoto University of the Arts (2020). She has also participated continuously in international art fairs, including Art Basel Hong Kong, PLAS Art Seoul, KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa, and Artists’ Fair Kyoto.

Since 2024, she has developed a locally rooted practice in Otsu, Shiga, where she founded “Yohaku,” an independent learning space dedicated to exploring Japanese culture and modes of knowledge transmission.

Her publications include artist books such as Okaerinasai (Murakoshi Gallery, 2005), Koko dewa nai doko ka / Forget me not (2008), Maku Meiro (Hatori Press, 2013), Kōmori: Everybody’s Girl is Nobody’s Girl (2017), Hansha yin–yang (2022), and ONBEAT+ Mai Miyake (2023). She has also published literary works, including the novel Oyasuminasai Yoi Yume o (Kodansha, 2011) and the experimental novel Shiki Colors (co-authored with Prabda Yoon, Geijutsu Shinbunsha, 2013).

Miyake studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 2008.
She served as Visiting Professor at Kyoto University of the Arts from 2017 to 2024. She is currently a Lecturer in the Nihonga Department at Musashino Art University.

SOLO EXHIBITION

GROUP EXHIBITION

INSTALLATION

CONTRACTED WORKS

WORKSHOP

COLLECTION

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COLLECTION