品川美香 Mika Shinagawa

Born in Kumamoto, 1988. Shinagawa received her Master’s diploma from the Graduate School of Arts, Kyoto University of Art and Design in 2016. Currently based in Osaka and Kyoto. Exhibitions include “mtk+ vol.14 Mika Shinagawa” at Cafe Dot.S in 2023, “Day and Night” at OIL by Bijutsu Techo in 2022, “The dream of the embryo” at Iori Machiya Stay in 2021, “ANTEROOM NAHA_Phase 2020” in 2020, “Universal Music Art Project 17″ at Universal Music Art Project 17” in 2019, etc.

Solo Exhibitions
2021 “The dream of the embryo” Iori Machiya Stay, Kyoto
2022 “Day and Night” OIL by Bijutsu Techo, Tokyo
2023 mtk+ vol.14 Mika Shinagawa, Cafe Dot.S, Kyoto

Major Group Exhibitions and Art Fairs
2013 “TRANSPARENCY OF ART” Rostock Art Museum, Germany
2016 “YANG ART TAIPEI 2016” Taiwan
2017 “Gunma Youth Biennale 2017” The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma
　　 “JAPAN Young Artist Exhibition in SEOUL” uJung Art Center, Seoul, Korea
　　 “Insecure Tide Land -International Art Exchange Exhibition” WINWINART, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
　　 “TAIWAN ANNUAL” Taipei Expo Park – Expo Dome, Taipei, Taiwan
2018 “Selected New Artists in Kyoto” The Museum of Kyoto, Kyoto
　　 “ARTISTS’ FAIR KYOTO 2018” The Museum of Kyoto Annex, Kyoto
　　 “Mika Shinagawa + Kazuhiko Kabuhiki inner space colony” ARTZONE, Kyoto
　　 “Each Real,” A-lab/Hyogo
　　 “November Island” WINWIN ART, Taipei, Taiwan
2019 “Universal Music Art Project 17” Tokyo
　　 Starbucks Kyoto BAL store, Permanent / Art Direction SANDWICH
2020 “ANTEROOM NAHA_Phase 2020” Okinawa
　　 “GOLDMEMBER 2022” Shimogamo Saryo, Kyoto
　　 Chishima Land Collection “TIDE – When Currents Take Shape” Chidori Bunka, Osaka
2021 “Contemporary Art Fair at HANKYU LUX” Hankyu Umeda, Tokyo　
　　 “Up_01” Ginza Tsutaya GINZA ATRIUM, Tokyo

Awards
2016 The 31st Holbein Scholarship, Scholarship recipient
2015 Kyoto University of Art and Design Completion Exhibition, Grand Prize
2017 Gunma Biennale for Young Artists 2017, Selected

Residences
2013 “Art Rainbow Project” Rostock, Germany

Corporate Collection
Ryobi Group / Okayama, Japan
Hotel ANDI / Wuhan, China
Chishima Land / Osaka
Anteloum Naha / Naha
Anteloum Seoul / Seoul
Universal Music / Tokyo
ASTON MARTIN OSAKA / Hachiko L.R. Co.
Bennett Collection of Woman Realist / Texas, USA
Rostock Museum of Art / Germany

I paint to think about things I don’t understand or are difficult to solve. Depending on the environment and experiences of the viewer, how they feel may be different, but each artwork has its own metaphors, such as the macro and micro images in the eyes of a child, or honey bees with colony collapse disoder. They suggest the connection between the existence of small lives and the larger existences of history or the universe, meaning that to me each life itself has value, and is not about instrumentalism or utilitarianism.

The innocent girls.

When I encountered Mika Shinagawa’s children with somewhat artificial innocent expressions, I was reminded the film A.I. which Spielberg released in 2001. The dramatic progress of conversational AI in recent years is remarkable. In this film, the protagonist robot boy goes even further – a robot with emotions is depicted, who yearns for his mother’s love and 2000 years later as the desire is fulfilled, dies. The complete innocent expressions of the children Shinagawa portrays, made me imagine futuristic robot girls who also are a step ahead in this way. Experts firmly state that conversational AI of the future will not have emotions. However, a painter with shrine-maiden-like talents can at times show a world that overthrows the standpoint of experts with a breadth of a painting. Shinagawa may be with this kind of natural gift.

（Public／ARTISTS’ FAIR KYOTO Organising Committee）