Minako Nishiyama

Minako Nishiyama
西山 美なコ
Born1965 (age 58–59)
Hyogo, Japan
NationalityJapanese

Minako Nishiyama (西山 美なコ, Nishiyama Minako, born 1965 in Hyōgo prefecture) is a Japanese contemporary artist whose works have dealt with cultures, customs, and the representations of young females in Japanese media and popular culture.[1] Her work is identified with an initial stage of the artistic transformation of post-modern Japanese "cute culture" in which cute images were appropriated and used for critique.[2][3]

Nationally she has had many solo shows in Okayama, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Nishinomiya. In addition to a solo show at the Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot in Paris, France she has participated internationally in group shows in Beijing, China; Madrid, Spain; Rimini, Italy and Portland, Oregon, Minneapolis and Miami in the United States.[4]

Since the beginning of the 1990s she has been making sculptures, paintings and installations using a transient material such as sugar with a bright luscious pink red to pink color that evaporate and dissolve over time. Her used of sugar and bright pink color refer to the stereotypical representations or images of cuteness or kawaii of young Japanese female.[5][6][7][8] In 2015 her work was included in the group exhibition "Kawaii" at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, England.[4]

  1. ^ Michelsen, Anders; Tygstrup, Frederik (2015). Socioaesthetics: Ambience - Imaginary. Leiden: BRILL. p. 139. ISBN 9789004303751.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Matsui, Midori (2005). "Beyond the Pleasure Room to a Chaotic Street: Transformations of Cute Subculture in the Art of the Japanese Nineties". In Murakami, Takashi (ed.). Little Boy: The Arts ofJapan's Exploding Subculture. pp. 209–239. ISBN 9780300102857.
  3. ^ Yano, Christine R. (2013). Pink globalization: Hello Kitty's trek across the Pacific. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 296. ISBN 978-0822353515.
  4. ^ a b "Minako Nishiyama". Yoshimi Arts. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  5. ^ Lloyd, Fran (2002). Consuming bodies : sex and contemporary Japanese art. London: Reaktion. ISBN 978-1861891471.
  6. ^ "Minako Nishiyama: Pink, Pink, Pink". Asia Art Archive. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  7. ^ Nemitz, Barbara, ed. (2006). Pink the exposed colour in contemporary art and culture. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz. ISBN 9783775717717.
  8. ^ Vergne, Philippe (2000). Let's entertain: life's guilty pleasures (1st ed.). Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center. p. 310. ISBN 9780935640663.