Born in 1932 in Juso (Osaka prefecture), Mishima began painting in the 1950s at the studio of Tsuguro Ito. Later, while studying with Shigeji Mishima, she experimented with collages, using printed and discarded materials such as newspapers, magazines, racing tickets and mosquito netting. On display here, Sokyo Gallery presents “Work E,” one of Mishima’s most important early pieces, which helped establish her reputation in the Japanese avant-garde scene of the 1960’s. Later, beyond producing paintings and collages, Mishima began to combine discarded pieces of metal and wood to create experimental sculptures. “Work 72-J,” which combines found materials including wire, metal, tree branches and paper, was a starting point in the artist's discovery of expression through sculptural installations.
One day, when I was putting a work out, a cat came in out of nowhere, pounced and broke it apart, and I thought, “That’s it! “―Kimiyo Mishima.
In the late 1960s, Mishima introduced a new series, “Breakable Printed Matter”. These were images of trashed newspapers, leaflets, and comic books, faithfully transferred by silkscreen onto clay. In these printed color ceramics, which would shatter when dropped, Mishima found an ironic, even subtle, way to convey a powerful message about the dangers of mass-consumption and an information- and advertisement-saturated lifestyle. Her often brightly-colored consumer products, like
crushed empty drink cans, are actually meticulously decorated ceramics, often installed with or in found objects like a metal trash can or furniture.
In 1986-87, Mishima was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship for an extended stay in New York City, where she met Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and other Pop Art artists. Despite these interactions, Mishima has never considered her work “Pop Art.” By never affiliating with any one artistic group, she has continued to pursue her own clearly individual ideas of expression. Mishima says that she has been sustained by her mentor and partner, Shigeji Mishima, who once told her, "If you keep at it, the time will come when not only more women will be recognized as artists but you will be appreciated as your own woman.”
This exhibition features Mishima's work from the 1960s, when she began her career, to two of her latest pieces, “Work 22-CS22” and “Box Post Box 22.” The show offers an overview of one woman’s long and powerful artistic direction. We hope you will take this opportunity to visit the exhibition.
Kimiyo MISHIMA was born in Osaka in Japan in 1932, and lives and works in both Juso, Osaka and Toki, Gifu. She exhibited her paintings at Dokuritsu Exhibition from 1954. She received the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, U.S.A. and stayed in New York, NY from 1986 to 1987. Permanent collections include: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Pola Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan; The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan; Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan; Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Hyogo, Japan; The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shiga, Japan; Museum of modern Cermic Art, Gifu, Japan; National Crafts Museum, Ishikawa, Japan; Benesse Art Site Naoshima, Kagawa, Japan; International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza, Italy; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, U.S.A.; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, U.S.A.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, U.S.A.; British Museum, London, UK; M+, Hong Kong; Muséed'art modern, Paris, France; The Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; The Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia and more.
Awards include: Osaka City Prize, Dokuritsu Exhibition (1961), Grand Prix and Suda Prize, Dokuritsu Exhibition (1963), Winner of the Prize, The 9th Annual Shell Exhibition (1965), Gold Prize, International Ceramic Exhibition, Faenza (1974), Winner of the Prize, The 11th Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan (1975), Gold Prize, Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture Exhibition, Toki (1988), Grand Prix, Sai no Kuni Saitama Chokoku Variety (1996), Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum Prize and The Citizen Prize,
The 19th Contemporary Japanese Sculpture Exhibition (2001), Sardi per l’Arte Back to the Future
Prize at Artissima, Torino, Italy (2019), Ando Tadao Cultural Foundation Prize as the first artist to receive the prize (2019). In recent years, Mishima has received significant acclaim both in Japan and abroad, receiving the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs Award, the 63rd Mainichi Art Award, the Gold Prize of the Ceramic Society of Japan in 2021, and the 11th Enku Award (Gifu) in 2022.
For more information and images, please contact:
info@gallery-sokyo.jp / Tel: 075-746-4456
Sokyo Gallery | 381-2 Motomachi, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto 605-0089 Japan
