Maki Umehara – Scotland/Japan Exchange
Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop is excited to announce that Maki Umehara has been selected as the artist to represent TOKAS in the final stage of the Scotland/Japan Residency exchange. She will be in residence at ESW for three months between the end of April and July. Taking the current state of flux in Europe as her staring point she will be developing a series of new works that look at the histories of artists, researchers, and migrants and their integration in a multicultural society.
Maki Umehara is a visual artist born in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. She is currently based in Aichi. She received master’s degrees from Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Meisterschüler of Rita McBride) and Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam, and a PhD in inter-media art from Tokyo University of the Arts, where her research was focused on collaborations in regard to certain publicly visible projects and how they developed into archives.
Selected solo exhibitions include A Festival of Choices, Gallery Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam, 2012, and Emerging Artists Award of the City of Düsseldorf, Kunstraum Düsseldorf, 2010. Selected group exhibitions include Nakanojo Biennale 2019, Nakanojo, 2019, A Playful Distance, Koganecho 1-1G, Yokohama, 2018, Transmigration, Alang Alang House Ubud, Bali, 2015, Hayy, Künstlerverein Malkasten Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, nüans, 2014, The Self-Taught Musical, SMART Project Space, Amsterdam, nüans, 2013, Pola Museum Annex 2012, Pola Museum Annex, Tokyo, 2012, Island Chose You, ISCP, NY, nüans, 2011, Talking to Rocks, Villa Romana, Florence, nüans, 2010, Aichi Art No Mori, Horikawa project, Nagoya, 2010. Selected awards include; Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn, nüans, 2012, Aritst-in-residence, Kunststiftung NRW, in cooperation with Goethe-Institut Mumbai, 2010, Graphic Award, Land of Nordrhein-Westfalen, 2009, New Talents-Biennale Cologne: Lexus Art Award, nüans, 2008, The Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Japanese Government Overseas Study Programme for Artists, 2002-2005.
Image: Archive (collaboration work, nüans), courtesy the artist
Between 2019 and 2020 Cove Park, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW) and Hospitalfield have been collaborating with a number of partners in Japan (AIT, TOKAS and ARCUS project) to deliver a new residency exchange programme for artists, makers/designers and curators based in Scotland and in Japan. This programme, supported by British Council Scotland and Creative Scotland, the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, takes place over two years, marking the British Council’s UK/Japan 2019/2020 Season of Culture and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS) is an arts center dedicated to the creation and promotion of contemporary artistic expression from Tokyo, and supports a wide spectrum of artistic activities including crossover and experimental projects. Established in 2001 its mission is to provide ongoing support for emerging and mid-career artists, promote creative international cultural exchange and offer support for cutting-edge and experimental creative projects.
click here for more information about TOKAS
