London-based Mizuki Nishiyama works with a wide variety of media, including oil, charcoal, ink and most recently sculpture and textile installation. The artist creates raw, vivid and multifaceted work that explores the fragile human condition, with a focus on the female body, the complexities of masculinity, love, lust and interpersonal relationships. What often transpires from her production, is a sense of vulnerability, gentleness, and vitality that encompass the images. In her abstract-figurative subjects, there is a nakedness both physically and spiritually to the being, which erases socio political connotations. As a mixed-Japanese artist, Nishiyama draws inspiration from the East and West, bridging her Hong Kong, Japanese and Italian cultural heritages.
Nishiyama embraces deeply personal experiences to craft each artwork: the artist's ongoing relationship with anxiety and trauma has greatly influenced her practice, and has fuelled her to confront vulnerability, fragility and the human condition. Painting is a chaotic yet meditative process for Nishiyama, that allows her to make sense of the more tempestuous periods in life.
Nishiyama has a Masters of Fine Arts degree from Central Saint Martins, and holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from Parsons School of Design. Her most recent solo exhibitions include 'The Beautiful and The Grotesque', Seafood Room, Hong Kong (2022), 'Seiza: Transgressing the Seated Body', ArtNext, Hong Kong (2022), 'Ikebana', International Finance Centre, Hong Kong (2021), and 'An Exploration of Human Fragility: Love and Lust', Tenri Cultural Institute of NY, New York (2020).
