Artist Statement
Many people have probably found themselves captivated by drawing videos on YouTube, where lines and colors emerge with each movement of the hand, and an image gradually takes shape—it feels like watching magic.
My desire to possess that magic was the starting point of my artistic practice.
At the same time, drawing has always been a way for me to understand the world. Driven by curiosity, I drew anything that caught my eye.
But no matter how much I drew, the image never truly “came to life.”
“How can I create work that feels alive?”—this question continues to underpin my practice.
Elements such as time, memory, light, wind, and heat are invisible, yet they undeniably shape our world.
I believe the human desire for “realness” in artworks stems from a deeper impulse: to sense, or even generate, these invisible forces ourselves.
Currently, I am exploring ways to incorporate such unseen elements into my work through techniques like layering translucent materials and using reflections and shadows on acrylic sheets.
It is an attempt to reproduce, in my own way, the subtle movements of the world.
Education
- 2020 B.A. oil Painting, Kyoto University of the Arts
Awards
- 2024 Grand Prize, ACT Art Award Exhibition (The Artcomplex Center of Tokyo)
Solo and Duo Exhibitions
- 2025 “Ref-rection”, Namiki Gallery, Tokyo
- 2025 “Omake de Ame”, Solo Exhibition as Grand Prize Winner, ACT Artcomplex Center of Tokyo
- 2023 “Sunlit Moments”, Citizens’ gallery in Taiji Kiyokawa Memorial Gallery, Tokyo
- 2023–2025 Solo Exhibitions, Namiki Gallery, Tokyo
- 2021–2024 “Noriko Okuyama × Michi OGAWA”, Duo Exhibition Series, Namiki Gallery, Tokyo
Group Exhibitions
- 2025 “MARGINAL ART FAIR Fukushima Hirono“
- 2024 The 42nd Ueno Royal Museum Grand Prize Exhibition / ACT Art Award Exhibition / Asago Biennale, etc.
- 2023 7th Saburo Miyamoto Memorial Drawing Award Exhibition (Ishikawa & Tokyo), etc.
Other
- Solo exhibition scheduled in 2026 at ASAGO ART VILLAGE
- Numerous works collected through solo/group exhibitions and art fairs by private collectors, galleries, and corporate offices
【Publications / Writings】
- Co-authored: “Community Building in the ‘Forest of Treasures'”, Parks and Open Space, Vol.75 No.1, 2014 (Japanese; on environmental community planning)
- Co-authored: “Feeding Behavior of Saturniidae on Pourthiaea villosa”, YASAN, Vol.85, 2019 (Natural science research)
- Illustrator: The Earth’s Treasured Soil, 2022 (Children’s science picture book)
