Whitestone Ginza New Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition“Prayer” of Miwa Komatsu. This is the first solo exhibition in 2020 at Tokyo by Miwa Komatsu who has designed this year’s charity T-shirt for 24 Hours TV. It would be our great pleasure if you could feel the world of contemporary artist Miwa Komatsu who has continued to draw “Prayer” paintings.

Born in Nagano in 1984. In her childhood, Komatsu had close contact with many living natures thanks to the rich natural environment: the experience of being present at their final moment led the artist to form her unique view of life and death, which linked to the peculiar style toward the beauty of death. Komatsu began copperplate engraving after entering Joshibi College of Art and Design. At the age of around 20, the work “ The Fourty- nineth day ” was appraised with its originality and it opened the way to be a professional painter. Starting from copperplate engraving, Komatsu has enlarged her ways of expression to acrylic paintings and even to Arita-porcelain in recent years. She has presented various works adopted themes such as death and the Gods who preside over it, holy beasts, Mononoke (supernatural beings) with strong embodiment of her performance. Komatsu realized consecutive solo shows at The Museum of Tetsu, Kitano Museum of Art Annex, and Ueda City Museum of Art, in her born-prefecture Nagano. In 2014, the artist dedicated her work to Izumo Taisha Shrine (the oldest shrine in Japan, considered as where the deity strongly dwells), which elevated her creational power all the more. In the same year, Komatsu collaborated with landscape artist, Kazuyuki Ishihara, and exhibited her Arita-porcelain guardian dog at the Chelsea Flower Show in London; the work won the prize and accomplished the splendid feat of entering into the collection of The British Museum. In 2017, her solo exhibition at Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho recorded circa 30,000 visitors. Komatsu has been active internationally versatile fields including addition of the work to World Trade Center in New York, exhibitions in Taiwan and Hong Kong, supplying the work to the movie, appearance in TV advertisement, just to name the few.

Ginza Gallery

5-1-10 Ginza, Chuo-ku Tokyo, 104-0061, Japan
Tel: +81 (0)3 3574 6161
Fax: +81 (0)3 3574 9430
11:00 - 19:00, Sun. 11:00 - 17:00
Closed: Monday
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ARTIST

MIWA KOMATSU
MIWA KOMATSU

Born in Nagano Prefecture, Miwa Komatsu graduated from Joshibi University of Art & Design, where she works as a visiting lecturer. She is also a visiting lecturer at Tokyo University of The Arts.

While studying at Joshibi College of Art and Design, her work entitled The Forty-ninth Day was praised for its moving originality. After creating this piece, Komatsu began to concentrate on her career as a professional painter. Starting from copperplate engraving, she has expanded her realm of creation by incorporating materials such as acrylic paint and even Arita ware in recent years.

Komatsu has been highly receptive to the invisible world from her childhood: her early experience of being immersed in nature, surrounded by animals and rich natural landscapes, developed her distinctive view of life and death that all beings were created equal in soul. With an abundance of expressive power, she has presented her works under the theme of 'Divine Spirits'.

A pair of her Arita ware works of guardian lion dogs, Heaven and Earth Komainu, which had been exhibited as part of London's Chelsea Flower Show, became part of the British Museum's collection, and it has been on permanent display. The works of Miwa Komatsu were in the possession of prominent museums and institutions such as World Trade Center, Nagano Prefectural Art Museum, Woodone Museum of Art, Izumo Grand Shrine (Shimane), The official residence of Consulate-General of Japan in Cleveland (Ohio, USA), Walt Disney Japan, just to name a few.

As a contemporary artist, Komatsu has maintained energetic activities including solo shows and live paintings across a spread of countries with the creational principle "The Great Harmonization".

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