Ao Miyasaka
Profile
Ao Miyasaka / 宮坂 青
Born in 2000 in Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan, and based in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
In 2021, she held her first solo exhibition as an attempt to clearly state who she was at that moment — questioning whether her actions were performance or genuine expression — and to present this position to contemporary society.
Since then, she has presented works primarily in Japan, as well as in New York and other Asian countries, developing textile art — a field still not widely recognized in Japan — through themes rooted in emotion and social context.
Her practice originates from early experiences of drawing graffiti alone on the walls of public housing in Matsumoto. Guided by the belief that art has no meaning unless it reaches the heart, she continues to create works that engage directly with emotion.
In her production process, she personally visits all textile and jewelry-related regions involved in each work, engaging in direct dialogue with artisans and collaborators.
Her representative work, Anger – SHIBUYA CRANK St., focuses on the near absence of cultural spaces in contemporary Japan that can receive and hold anger. By placing the words “Get angry. Argue. Acknowledge each other.” within the streets of Shibuya, the work invites confrontation, release, and dialogue.
Through textile art, she explores emotional transformation, viewer dialogue, and new possibilities for contemporary expressions of Japanese culture.
2000年長野県松本市に生まれ、東京都新宿区を拠点に活動する現代アーティスト。
狂言か表現か、今日現在を明言し現代に提言しようと2021年に初個展を開催。以降、日本を中心にニューヨークやアジア諸国で展示やショーを行い、日本ではまだ広く認知されていない『テキスタイルアート』を、感情や社会性を軸としたテーマで発表している。
幼少期に長野県松本市の団地で1人壁に描いていたグラフィティ体験を原点に、「心に届くものでなければ制作する意味がない」という考えのもと制作を続けている。
作品制作においては、使用する生地や宝飾に関わるすべての産地を自ら訪れ、職人や関係者と直接対話しながら制作を行う。
代表作《怒 - SHIBUYA CRANK St. -》では日本発祥の怒りを受け入れるカルチャーが現代では殆ど存在しないことに着目し、「怒れよ、言い合えよ、認め合えよ」という感情を渋谷センター街に設置した。
テキスタイルアートを通じて、鑑賞者それぞれの感情の昇華と対話を促し、日本文化の新たな表現の可能性を探求している。