Miori Odamaki

Pronouns: She/Her
Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan

I was born in a traditional family, with a “buke” ancestor, in Tokyo, Japan. I grew up in a traditional Japanese way, learning “sadō” (Japanese tea ceremony), “buyō” (traditional Japanese performing art), and “kadō” (the Japanese art of flower arrangement). I went to both art and classical music western tradition schools as a child. So for me, it was a very natural way of daily life, touching Japanese traditional culture and a European academic education. This is probably the root of my painting.

I first worked as a jewelry designer. I was in the biggest pearl company and I had such famous clients as Jim Jarmusch, Johnny Depp and many VIPs. I received an award in the International Pearl Design Contest but I also kept working on my painting.

There was a day when I finally decided to stop jewelry design and start a career as a painter. I worked with Tomato (http://www.tomato.co.uk), and Steve, Tomato’s manager, said to me after seeing my paintings that I “should choose a career as a painter.” So I became a part of the long 1,000-year history of communication of the arts by creating my own work.

I have been trying to express the inner face of human beings through my paintings and by creating a series of work called “Fantasy in the Tangle”, “Organic”, and “Confusion”. I have tried to continue my creation even though now showing them. The process has not stopped when I finish one work — the flow of the process shows me the next one. This aggregation is the totality of the artwork. The abstraction comes from communication to this world. It becomes a visual language

“Lines, Black and White”

I have been using “Lines, Black and White”. This hasn’t been often used in western painting but it is very familiar to me as a Japanese. We can express everything through “Lines, Black and White” — even the inner face of Japanese culture. It is the inevitability of culture and history that causes me to use it in abstract expression.

I continue to create work and communicate my feelings and continue this way over a long journey.

In her work presented in 2013, I noticed some pantheistic hues. The Odamaki ensemble presented solo this year offers much more today, while remaining in the sharpness of a more general spiritualist impregnation. I noticed first the beautiful unity of tone, strengthened by the omnipresence of a sumptuous color, a red. Each painting seems to me to be a small spiritual adventure emanating from the richness of the artist’s inner world, enriched by her observations, her reverie, perhaps even her memories and even her obsessions. I believe I can relate it to a great Surrealist painter less well known than Dali or Milo, but whose work is important. It is the Jaques Herold whose aerial, fluids, sometimes fluctuating forms are appreciated. Some works by Odamaki could be similar to the automatic writing experience.

Art Critic / Roger Bouillot (France)

Education

Musashino Art University – Department of Painting, Tokyo, Japan

Recent Activity

• Salon d’Automne 2022 August 11 – 21 /Salon d’Automne Japon – Japan-France Multinational Contemporary Art Exhibition at The National Art Center, Tokyo (Roppongi, Tokyo)

Awards

2018 1st place award – Salon d’Automne Japon – Japan-France Multinational Contemporary Art Exhibition (NACT**/Tokyo, Japan)
• 2016 UNESCO’s official trophy awarded in honor of art cultural exchange in Japan and Egypt and national municipalities participating in a celebration of Egyptian history and culture at UNESCO headquarters, Paris
• 2015 MAIMERI award – Salon d’Automne Japon – Japan-France Multinational Contemporary Art Exhibition (NACT**/Tokyo, Japan)

Past

• 2013-2022 /Salon d’Automne Japon – Japan-France Multinational Contemporary Art Exhibition at The National Art Center, Tokyo** (Roppongi, Tokyo) [2015/2018 award]
• 2014, 2015, 2017 / Salão de Outono da América Latina – The Latin America Memorial* (São Paulo, Brazil)
• 2012-2017, 2019-2021 / Japanese Today’s Visual Art Exhibition (Farm Culture Park***, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Finland, and Croatia)
• 2014 / 28th The Paris International Art Exhibition – Solo section at Le Loft Sévigné and Galerie du Marais (Paris, France)
• 2008-2013 / [Group] CC’s Exhibition at Mireya Gallery (Ginza, Tokyo)
• 2013 / 2nd Exposition “Nouvelle Ecole de Paris ukiyo-e at Galerie Nikki and Galerie du Marais (Paris, France)
• 2013 / [Solo] The Crouise Exhibition “Organic Series” at Gallery Gekkoso (Ginza, Tokyo)
• 2010 / [Solo] Cruise Exhibition at Ichigaya Kameoka Hachimangu (Shrine / Shinjuku, Tokyo) Mireya Gallery (Ginza, Tokyo) and Kyo-ou-ji (Temple, Shinjuku, Tokyo – Collaborative Exhibition with Contemporary dancer (Butoh) Daisuke Yoshimoto
2009 / [Solo] Cruise Exhibition at Ichigaya Kameoka Hachimangu (Shrine / Shinjuku, Tokyo) Mireya Gallery (Ginza, Tokyo) and Kyo-ou-ji (Temple / Shinjuku, Tokyo

* The architectural setting, designed by Oscar Niemeyer
** Designed by Kisho Kurokawa
***Designed by Salvator-John Liotta
****Designed by Hilding Ekelund

Scroll to Top