Emi Miyashita

　　　　　　　　Artist Statement – Emi Miyashita 

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Japan-based artist Emi Miyashita explores the delicate balance between fragility and strength, and the inseparable relationship between life and death. Her practice is rooted in personal experience, where profound loss and resilience continuously shape her perspective.

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Working primarily with pencil on paper, Miyashita creates fine-lined drawings that examine the meaning of life and death, feminism, and psychoanalysis—particularly influenced by the writings of Sigmund Freud and Melanie Klein. Her concepts are drawn from childhood memories, her near-death experience in a car accident in 2001, and the layered realities of motherhood. Since her return to Japan in 2013, the experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, miscarriages, and raising three children have remained central to her inquiry into vulnerability, strength, and identity.

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At present, Miyashita is based in a seaside area of Japan, where she finds inspiration not only in everyday motherhood but also in the beach, nature, small creatures, and the surrounding environment. These encounters fuel her search for the meaning of life, reminding her of both its fragility and resilience. Motherhood is never simple, yet its struggles and joys have become a vital source of creativity.

Another essential element of her vision is British culture, shaped during her ten years in London (2003–2013). This overseas experience remains key to her artistic perspective, offering a contrast with Japanese cultural expectations. The tension between openness and restraint, individuality and conformity continues to inform her inquiry into life, society, and the human psyche.

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Recently, Miyashita has been expanding her practice through a new project: creating mass-produced goods featuring her iconic breast (“Oppai”) drawings, including keyrings, stickers, and acrylic figure stands. The acrylic stands, in particular, carry cultural significance as they represent one of the most distinctive forms of Japanese and wider Asian cultural media, deeply rooted in anime and pop culture. By merging this playful format with feminist and psychological themes, Miyashita reinterprets her fine art through the lens of kawaii culture.

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Carrying an Oppai acrylic stand into everyday life makes the ordinary feel more artistic, brighter, and more fun, while also serving as a way for her to share her ideas directly with her audience—something she hopes will become a meaningful channel of connection.

Her works, at once fragile and enduring, invite viewers to reflect on the psychological depths of existence and the unspoken intersections between memory, body, and identity.