Artist Statement

Misa’s practice is concerned with perception: how we sense, recognise and imagine the world, and how transient and unstable those acts can be.

She begins with materials rather than a predetermined image. Marks, colours and forms accumulate through a process of looking, responding, disrupting and adjusting. She is interested in the moment when something seems to emerge, perhaps a landscape, figure, organism or other presence, without becoming fully identifiable. Recognition remains provisional, leaving space for imagination to enter.

This way of working reflects how she understands the relationship with the world : not as observers standing apart from nature, but as participants within a shifting field of relationships, forces and encounters. Growing up in Japan, where animistic understandings of the world were present in everyday life, has shaped this sensibility. Misa is drawn to the possibility that things - materials, plants, objects, places - have lives and agencies that exceed our interpretations of them.

Making for her is a way of paying attention without trying to fully explain. Through chance, intuition and material response, Misa tries to keep the work open: somewhere between what is seen and sensed, familiar and strange, known and imagined.

BIO

Misa was born in Japan and has lived in the UK since 2001. She completed an MA in Printmaking at Camberwell College of Arts in 2013 and is a recipient of the Bainbridge Studio Award and the Intaglio Printmaker Awards at The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers National Original Print Exhibition. She regularly exhibits at the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair.

Education

Sept 2022-2023 Turps Correspondence course

Sept 2013 MA in Printmaking, Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London

Mar 2011 UAL level 4 Foundation Diploma in Art & Design, Citylit (awarded by UAL)

Sept 1999 LLB in Law, University of Warwick

Exhibitions

April 2026 “The first round proper”, Block Project, Sheffield

March 2026 “Whisper, softly”, This House Gallery, Stroud

Oct 2025 Lido Open, The Lido Store, Margate

Oct 2025 “Materiality”, The Handbag Factory, London

Jun 2025 Solo show, “What moves in stillness”, Jeannie Avent Gallery, London

Feb 2025 “From our garden you could touch the moon, almost”, Duo exhibition, The Handbag Factory, London

Dec 2024 Southwark Art Gallery Exhibition, London

Nov 2024 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London

Nov 2024 Southwark Park Galleries Open 2024, London

Oct 2024 “Playground” group exhibition by Swan Art, The Handbag Factory, London

Oct 2023 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London

Sept 2023 Group show, “do not swallow”, London

Mar 2023 Solo show, “In praise of fragments”, Jeannie Avent Gallery, London

Oct 2022 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London

Mar 2022 Solo show, “Second sight”, Jeannie Avent Gallery, London

Oct 2021 The Other Art Fair, London

Mar 2021 Solo show, “the other way to listen”, Jeannie Avent Gallery, London

Oct 2020 Art2Life Exhibition, online

Nov 2019 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London

Oct 2019 Roy’s Art Fair, the Old Truman Brewery, London

Sept 2019 National Original Print Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London

Mar 2019 Artist’s talk “Us as Nature”, Citylit, London

Jan 2019 The Structure of Things, Bearspace Gallery, London

Sept 2018 National Original Print Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London

Aug 2018 Japan Exhibition, West Yorkshire Print Workshop, Yorkshire

Oct 2017 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London

Oct 2017 Awagami International Miniature Print Exhibition, Japan

July 2016 Small Print International, touring exhibition in England

Feb 2016 New Home, Mile End Art Pavilion, London

May 2014 Bainbridge Open, Embassy Gallery, London

Dec 2013 Without Boundaries, Menier Gallery, London

Award/ Prize

Apr 2025. MacFarlanes Art Prize 2024-25, First prize winner

Sept 2019 Intaglio Printmaker Award at National Original Print Exhibition

May 2014 Excellence in Printmaking by East London Printmakers at Bainbridge Open

Sep 2013 Bainbridge Studio Award

Residencies

Nov 2024 JOYA artist residency, Spain

July 2018 Officina Stamperia Del Notaio, Italy