Miwa Komatsu

I saw this artist, Miwa Komatsu, in honkong 2018.
In white stone gallery, her artworks were almost sold out.
They are very powerful and rich color and material.


Born in Nagano in 1984. In her childhood, Komatsu had close contact with many living natures thanks to the rich natural environment: the experience of being present at their final moment led the artist to form her unique view of life and death, which linked to the peculiar style toward the beauty of death. Komatsu began copperplate동판 engraving after entering Joshibi College of Art and Design. At the age of around 20, the work “ The Fourty- nineth day ” was appraised with its originality and it opened the way to be a professional painter. Starting from copperplate engraving, Komatsu has enlarged her ways of expression to acrylic paintings and even to Arita-porcelain자기 in recent years. She has presented various works adopted themes such as death and the Gods who preside over it, holy beasts, Mononoke (supernatural beings) with strong embodiment of her performance. Komatsu realized consecutive solo shows at The Museum of Tetsu, Kitano Museum of Art Annex, and Ueda City Museum of Art, in her born-prefecture Nagano. In 2014, the artist dedicated her work to Izumo Taisha Shrine (the oldest shrine in Japan, considered as where the deity strongly dwells), which elevated her creational power all the more. In the same year, Komatsu collaborated with landscape artist, Kazuyuki Ishihara, and exhibited her Arita-porcelain guardian dog at the Chelsea Flower Show in London; the work won the prize and accomplished the splendid feat of entering into the collection of The British Museum. In 2017, her solo exhibition at Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho recorded circa 30,000 visitors. Komatsu has been active internationally versatile다양항 fields including addition of the work to World Trade Center in New York, exhibitions in Taiwan and Hong Kong, supplying the work to the movie, appearance in TV advertisement, just to name the few.




Miwa Komatsu (1984- ) was born in Sakaki City in Nagano, Japan and graduated from Joshibi College of Art and Design in Tokyo in 2004. The artist started her career producing copperplate prints, and started painting after a flash of enlightenment during one of her trips to New York. Komatsu’s favorite subjects are divine beasts, particular guardian dogs, which are often seen in Shinto shrines in Japan. She paints their diversity rooted in history and region, as the Lion Dogs were introduced to Japan after traveling across many continents, and changed appearance after being influenced by various cultures along the way. She entirely devotes herself tackling씨름하다, 솔직히 말하다 her motifs; explore themes relating to mononoke (spirits) and yokai (ghosts and goblins) at a young age. The strange, fantastic divine beasts in her paintings look intimidating, but at the same time, look humorous; they are dynamic but also sensitive, her paintings present a happy fusion of ideas and skills. She has succeeded in making the slow and painstaking공들인 line drawings flourish in modern times. Her toughness and undaunted겁먹지않는 spirit are refreshing.