Bio

Mayu Shiomi is a Japanese artist, living and creating in Tokyo, Japan. She studied oil painting at a vocational school in Tokyo, then sculpture. In 2011, she received her BFA (sculpture) from Tokyo Zokei University and later in 2016, earned her MFA (sculpture) from the Graduate School of Aichi University of the Arts. She has held six solo exhibitions in Japan, and participated in many group exhibitions in Japan, Taiwan, the United States, and the UK. She also participated in a short-term artist residency in the UK in 2018. Her works have received many awards, including the Grand Prix at the  Brillia Art Award in 2018. Her works are in display in the Nasunogahara Museum's public collection and various private collections in Japan, Singapore, and the UK. She spent her teenage in Shibuya, Tokyo, a major metropolitan city in Japan. Her sensibility is shaped by the latest culture from the younger generation and the choices she has made in an environment filled with elements. 

Artist Statement

Off-the-shelf products, preconceptions, and the existence of humans surrounding them--these are the themes that I'm always hooked onto, and that are common to all of my works. It's the spirit of the masses, connecting to works with humor and transforming something overwhelming, such as excitement, passion, affection, elusiveness. I am seeking to transform something as stimulating as them into my works. I mainly focus on sculpture creation based on my curiosity about "things" and the neighboring space. My work develops from traditional sculptures of modeling techniques through the medium of drawing, painting, and installation. Working on different media and experimenting with a wide variety of materials gives you the opportunity to question your impulses and to discover. I always enjoy that. I treat all superficially inconsistent themes equally--empty cans, dolls, Santa Claus, radio, punk rock, and animation. My philosophy is the lineup of all these side by side as the ultimate motif in my works. Disturbed expressions play an important role in my works. This is one of my group of works with the subject of “common myths.”

www.mayushiomi.com