Aiko Miyawaki was born in Tokyo in 1929. After the war, she was introduced to the world of abstract art through encounters with influential figures such as Nobuya Abe and Yoshishige Saito. Her artistic career began with her first solo exhibition at Yoseido Gallery in Tokyo in 1957. Her interest in Surrealism and her pursuit of new forms of artistic expression led her to experiment with a variety of materials, including glass and marble powder, creating two-dimensional works that embodied her artistic vision.
A turning point in Miyawaki’s career came during her stay in Milan, where she began working with brass tubes, a choice that would come to define her artistic practice. She transformed these materials into sculptures exploring themes of light and reflection, embodying her vision of life as a continuous process of transformation. During these years, she exhibited at numerous international galleries, including Galleria Minima in Milan (1961), Tokyo Gallery in Tokyo (1962), and Galerie André Schoeller in Paris (1962).
Her work with brass tubes evolved further during her time in New York, where she came into contact with artists such as Sam Francis and Jasper Johns, opening up new creative perspectives. She held exhibitions at the Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire (1964), and at Staempfli Gallery in New York (1969). In 1970, she also exhibited at the International Press Club in Warsaw, at Galerie Pryzmat with the Krakow Artists’ Union, and at Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Poland.
Her permanent public works can be found in institutions such as the Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art in Okayama; the Hakone Open-Air Museum; the Biwako Ohashi Sculpture Plaza in Shiga; the Gunma Museum of Contemporary Art; Plaza Tower and Town Center in Costa Mesa, California; the Olympic Ring in Barcelona; and the esplanade of La Défense in Paris. In 1994, she created a series of works for the new Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by her husband, Arata Isozaki. Aiko Miyawaki died in Yokohama in 2014.
© Galleria del Naviglio, Milano
Gallery
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
Aiko Miyawaki, Sculpture 1965–1975, Studio Gariboldi, Milan, Italy
2014
Museum Haus Kasuya, Yokosuka, Japan
2001
Takaoka Art Museum, Takaoka, Japan
Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art, Nagi, Japan
1998
Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, Japan
1996
Hara Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris, France
1994
Pałac Sztuki, Krakow, Poland
1991
Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain
1990
Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris, France
Galerie Art Défense, Paris, France
1986
Staempfli Gallery, New York, USA
1976
Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy
1970
Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, Poland
Galerie Pryzmat with the Artists’ Union of Krakow, Poland
International Press Club, Warsaw, Poland
1969
Staempfli Gallery, New York, USA
1967
Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1964
Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, USA
1962
Galerie André Schoeller, Paris, France
Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1961
Galleria Minima, Milan, Italy
1959
Yoseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
Hard Line Women, Nonaka-Hill, Los Angeles, USA (forthcoming)
Italy–Japan. Japanese Artists in Milan since the 1960s, Studio Gariboldi, Milan, Italy
2024
MOT Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Avant-Garde in Japan and Italy: International Dialogue of Artists in the 20th Century, Fukuyama Museum of Art, Fukuyama, Japan
2023
Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction (1940–70), Whitechapel Gallery,London, UK
Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles, France
A Leap into the Void. Art Beyond Matter, GAMeC, Bergamo, Italy
MOMAT Collection, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
2020
Collection 1: Transgressing Lines, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
2016
A Feverish Era: Art Informel and the Expansion of Japanese Artistic Expression in the 1950s and ’60s,National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
1994
Japanese Art after 1945: Scream Against the Sky, Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan; Solomon R.Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
1986
Japon des avant-gardes 1910–1970, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1984
Exhibition of the Permanent Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
1981
The 1960s: A Decade of Change in Contemporary Japanese Art, The National Museum of Modern Art,
Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan
The 13th International Biennale of Small Bronze Sculpture, Padua, Italy
1978–81
MA – Espace-Temps du Japon, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France; New York, Houston, Chicago,Stockholm and Helsinki
1976
Arte Fiera, Bologna, Italy
1970
Expo ’70, Osaka, Japan
Contemporary Japanese Art, Staempfli Gallery, New York, USA
1969
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Collection, New York, USA
1968
Fluorescent Chrysanthemum – Contemporary Japanese Arts, ICA, London, UK; Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada
Directions 1: Options, Milwaukee Art Center; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
