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Announcing Representation: Masako Miki
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Announcing Representation: Masako Miki

Announcing Representation: Masako Miki

Jessica Silverman is delighted to represent Masako Miki, an artist whose paintings, sculptures, and installations blur the boundaries between the sacred and the secular. Using a variety of materials, including wool, wood, bronze, ink, and watercolor, Miki creates characterful artworks rooted in the Indigenous culture of her Japanese birthplace but informed by the freedom and ambition of three decades of living in California. In dialogue with artists like Ruth Asawa, Joan Miró, Isamu Noguchi, and Marc Chagall, the artist explores the significance of the overlooked and discarded in ways that challenge androcentrism.

INSTALLATION VIEW
SELECTED WORKS
ARTIST BIO
OTHER EXHIBITIONS

INSTALLATION VIEW

SELECTED WORKS

Masako Miki
Resilient Hinoki Tree (Periwinkle and Mint), 2024
Wool on EPS foam, walnut wood
70 x 22 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches / 177.8 x 57.1 x 57.1 cm
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Masako Miki, Resilient Hinoki Tree (Periwinkle and Mint)
Masako Miki
Singing Shapeshifter (Lilac), 2024
Wool on EPS foam, walnut wood
53 1/4 x 21 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches / 135.3 x 54.6 x 54.6 cm
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Masako Miki, Singing Shapeshifter (Lilac)
All the people on the planet today have evolved from hunter-gatherers who, despite disparate geographies, had parallel worldviews that unanimously embrace animism. Animism is the belief that all things have a spiritual essence. The belief embraces not just animals and plants, but rocks, climatic conditions, and man-made objects. While most industrial nations have lost touch with their Indigenous traditions or relegated them to children’s books, many Japanese have held onto their native convictions in the form of Shintoism, a faith that intermingles harmoniously with the imported religions of Buddhism and Christianity.

Miki’s works explore the idiosyncrasies of Shinto narratives as a potent route to human universals and the affinities that foster community. As Miki explains, “I hope that my works generate the kind of curiosity and empathy that enables us to come together.”
Masako Miki
Plaster Wall Spirit Sees a Path Forward, 2024
Ink and watercolor on paper
25 3/4 x 32 3/4 x 2 inches / 65.4 x 83.2 x 5.1 cm
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Masako Miki, Plaster Wall Spirit Sees a Path Forward
Masako Miki
Galaxy and Flying Hands Travel Together, 2024
Ink and watercolor on paper
25 3/4 x 32 3/4 x 2 inches / 65.4 x 83.2 x 5.1 cm
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Masako Miki, Galaxy and Flying Hands Travel Together
One emblematic gathering is the “Night Parade of 100 Demons,” a Japanese legend in which dozens of beings march for recognition. Explored in many of Miki’s paintings, the procession, which is rarely orderly and often riotous, marks a return of the repressed or abandoned. The characters have fluid identities as they are always self-actualizing through interaction with others – a state masterfully captured by Miki’s watercolor technique.
Masako Miki
A Cat Who Lived a Million Times Waits for Change, 2024
Ink and watercolor on paper
32 3/4 x 25 3/4 x 2 inches / 83.2 x 65.4 x 5.1 cm
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Masako Miki, A Cat Who Lived a Million Times Waits for Change
Masako Miki
Grandpa's Lacquer Bowls and Golden Stick Conspire, 2024
Watercolor and ink on paper
32 3/4 x 25 3/4 x 2 inches / 83.2 x 65.4 x 5.1 cm
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Masako Miki, Grandpa's Lacquer Bowls and Golden Stick Conspire
In a watercolor and ink painting on paper titled Grandpa’s Lacquer Bowls and Golden Stick Conspire (2024), a mischievous wooden sprite colludes with a stack of red lacquer bowls, the moon, a cat, a tote bag, and a plaster wall spirit with four eyes and spindly legs. A blue fox with two tails echoes the coyote tricksters and howling werewolves of other continents’ lore. As it happens, Miki’s grandfather was a lacquer artist while her father was an antique dealer – a profession that, like the “Night Parade,” collects and reevaluates used goods.
Masako Miki
Waterdrop From a Million Years Ago, 2023
Wool on XSP foam, maple wood
39 x 39 x 39 inches / 99.1 x 99.1 x 99.1 cm
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Masako Miki, Waterdrop From a Million Years Ago
Masako Miki
Ceremonial Mochi Shapeshifter, 2021
Wool on XPS foam, maple wood
37 x 25 inches / 94 x 63.5 cm
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Masako Miki, Ceremonial Mochi Shapeshifter
Masako Miki
Rising Prayer Beads (Blue), 2022
Wool on XPS foam, walnut wood
87 x 24 x 24 inches / 221 x 61 x 61 cm
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Masako Miki, Rising Prayer Beads (Blue)
Masako Miki
Waterdrop From a Million Years Ago, 2023
Wool on XSP foam, maple wood
39 x 39 x 39 inches / 99.1 x 99.1 x 99.1 cm
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Masako Miki, Waterdrop From a Million Years Ago
Masako Miki
Ceremonial Mochi Shapeshifter, 2021
Wool on XPS foam, maple wood
37 x 25 inches / 94 x 63.5 cm
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Masako Miki, Ceremonial Mochi Shapeshifter
Masako Miki
Rising Prayer Beads (Blue), 2022
Wool on XPS foam, walnut wood
87 x 24 x 24 inches / 221 x 61 x 61 cm
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Masako Miki, Rising Prayer Beads (Blue)
Integral to Miki’s practice are handmade wool-felt sculptures that could be trees, chestnuts, waterdrops, mochi treats, or the physical manifestations of sounds. Simultaneously organic and architectural, these works are distinguished by an absence of right angles and other rectilinear forms that might imprison or confine. The characters are all “shapeshifters” who metamorphose and foster change. For example, Rising Prayer Beads (Lime Green) resembles a tree, but it is named for a string of enchanted beads. According to legend, some tools, especially when they are 100 years old, become alive and self-aware. As an instrument of Buddhist enlightenment, prayer beads are particularly resistant to neglect, so they commonly return in animated form.
Masako Miki
Rising Prayer Beads (Lime Green), 2023
Wool, XPS foam, walnut wood
60 x 16 x 16 inches / 152.4 x 40.6 x 40.6 cm
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Masako Miki, Rising Prayer Beads (Lime Green)
Masako Miki
Preaching Ancient Scripture, 2021
Wool on XPS foam, walnut wood
47 x 40 x 26 inches / 119.4 x 101.6 x 66 cm
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Masako Miki, Preaching Ancient Scripture
Masako Miki
Ancient Tree Witness, 2023
Wool on XPS foam, walnut wood
76 x 48 x 42 inches / 193 x 121.9 x 106.7 cm
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Masako Miki, Ancient Tree Witness
Masako Miki
Rising Prayer Beads (Lime Green), 2023
Wool, XPS foam, walnut wood
60 x 16 x 16 inches / 152.4 x 40.6 x 40.6 cm
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Masako Miki, Rising Prayer Beads (Lime Green)
Masako Miki
Preaching Ancient Scripture, 2021
Wool on XPS foam, walnut wood
47 x 40 x 26 inches / 119.4 x 101.6 x 66 cm
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Masako Miki, Preaching Ancient Scripture
Masako Miki
Ancient Tree Witness, 2023
Wool on XPS foam, walnut wood
76 x 48 x 42 inches / 193 x 121.9 x 106.7 cm
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Masako Miki, Ancient Tree Witness
Masako Miki
Contemplative Chestnut Shapeshifter (Mint Green Lashes), 2022
Wool on XPS foam, walnut wood
36 1/2 x 26 x 26 inches / 92.7 x 66 x 66 cm
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Masako Miki, Contemplative Chestnut Shapeshifter (Mint Green Lashes)
Masako Miki
Aspiring Ancient Vase, 2023
Patinated bronze on Douglas fir pedestal
53 x 13 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches / 134.6 x 34.9 x 34.9 cm
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Masako Miki, Aspiring Ancient Vase
Bronze sculptures are also a significant part of Miki’s artistic practice. Her outdoor Plant Ghosts are cascading succulents that walk on five fronds. A striped one whose color is described as chartreuse could be a crustacean that has recently emerged from the sea or a toupee swept off the head of a Manga anti-hero. Plant Ghost (Evergreen with Dots), by contrast, suggests its underlying metal foundations through its bronze-colored spots – an inside joke about art fabrication and truth to materials.
Masako Miki
Plant Ghost (Evergreen with Dots), 2022
Cast bronze, automobile paint, and urethane
24 1/2 x 25 x 25 inches / 62.2 x 63.5 x 63.5 cm
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Masako Miki, Plant Ghost (Evergreen with Dots)
Masako Miki
Plant Ghost (Chartreuse with Stripes), 2022
Cast bronze, automobile paint and urethane
24 1/2 x 25 x 25 inches / 62.2 x 63.5 x 63.5 cm
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Masako Miki, Plant Ghost (Chartreuse with Stripes)
Masako Miki
Plant Ghost (Cream with Dots), 2022
Cast bronze with automobile paint and urethane
24 1/2 x 25 x 25 inches / 62.2 x 63.5 x 63.5 cm
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Masako Miki, Plant Ghost (Cream with Dots)
Masako Miki
Plant Ghost (Evergreen with Dots), 2022
Cast bronze, automobile paint, and urethane
24 1/2 x 25 x 25 inches / 62.2 x 63.5 x 63.5 cm
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Masako Miki, Plant Ghost (Evergreen with Dots)
Masako Miki
Plant Ghost (Chartreuse with Stripes), 2022
Cast bronze, automobile paint and urethane
24 1/2 x 25 x 25 inches / 62.2 x 63.5 x 63.5 cm
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Masako Miki, Plant Ghost (Chartreuse with Stripes)
Masako Miki
Plant Ghost (Cream with Dots), 2022
Cast bronze with automobile paint and urethane
24 1/2 x 25 x 25 inches / 62.2 x 63.5 x 63.5 cm
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Masako Miki, Plant Ghost (Cream with Dots)
An accomplished multimedia artist, Miki brings her distinctive creativity to the tropes of global Indigenous narratives, exposing their relevance to issues of equity and respect. Miki’s practice is playful yet diligent, resistant to static dualisms, and feisty in its advocacy of the power, personality, and wisdom of the natural world.

ARTIST BIO

Masako Miki (b. 1973, Osaka, Japan) will open a two-person exhibition titled “(Super)Natural: Paul Klee and Masako Miki” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) on August 17, 2024. Miki has enjoyed solo shows and projects at the de Young Museum, San Francisco; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), CA; ICA San José, CA; and KMAC Contemporary Art Museum, Louisville, KY. Her work is in the permanent collections of SFMOMA; BAMPFA; the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, CA; Collección SOLO, Madrid; and Byrd Hoffman Water Mill Foundation, New York, among others. Recent commissions include a site-specific installation for the Minna Natoma Arts Corridor in San Francisco and a permanent installation of bronze sculptures at Uber HQ, San Francisco. Miki has a BFA from Notre Dame de Namur University and an MFA from San José State University, CA. She lives and works in Berkeley, CA. Miki is represented by Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, and Ryan Lee, New York. She will have a solo exhibition with Jessica Silverman in 2025.

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