Biography
Maya Masuda (b. Tokyo, JP, she/her), is a Tokyo/London-based, queer interdisciplinary artist. Maya brings her unique speculative post-human realism to life through storytelling via film, performance, writing and time-based installation. Throughout her work, she elaborately re-examines current environmental concerns such as the emergence of geotrauma or nuclear energy, from the borderlands where technology and animal, human and material converge. As an artist who has a background in machine engineering, Maya proposes affective, sensual, spatiotemporal narrative which reimagines ‘otherness’ as a perfect totality set within the abjected state, which interweaves non-human, marginalised and symbolic. Developing a kinship with the imperfect and political nature of technology, her work reveals and interrogates constructed images of idealised futurity while suggesting an alternative methodology that negates anthropocentrism.
Graduating from Tama Art University in Tokyo, she currently studies and researches new media archaeology at the Royal College of Art. Her practice encompasses a wide range of fields such as curation, publishing and activism. She is the co-founder of the feminist-queer journal “i+med(i/e)a”, and was recently shortlisted for Bloomberg New Contemporaries(2022, UK), Sustainability First Art Prize (2021, UK). Her recent exhibitions include 눈보라 먼바다 The Snow Storm and the Faraway Sea(2023, Seoul), Interassemblages - Nodal Relay(2022, Berlin),“ESC” - YYYYMMDD + VVOVVA (2022, online/Vienna), Trans×Formation(2022, AnBTokyo), Aichi Triennale U27 program Exhibition (2019, Art Lab Aichi) etc.
Education
- 2021
- MA Royal College of Art, Sculpture
- 2019
- BA Tama Art University, Art and Media Course
- 2017
- BA Keio University,Information and Environmetal Studies
Exhibitions
- 2023
- Mar. Group Exhibition,"Hung, Drawn and Quartered", Standpoint Gallery, London
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- Feb. Group Exhibition,"One Night Stand", Camden Arc, London
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- Feb. Collective solo Exhibition,"손과 속삭임, Hands and Whispers", Yellow Pen Club, Seoul
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- Feb. Group Exhibition,"Matters of Lives 生を読む", Kuma Gallery, Tokyo
- 2022
- Dec. Group Exhibition,"Interassemblages - Nodal Relay", ACUD Galerie, Berlin
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- Oct. Group Exhibition,"The Third Floor", Royal College of Art Dyson Building, London
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- Apr. Group Exhibition, “ESC” - YYYYMMDD + VVOVVA (online/Vienna)
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- Apr. Group Exhibition "A Vail", Museum of Model art, Scotland
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- Apr. Group Exhibition "Trans×Formation" Kuma Foudation Exhibition, ANB Tokyo
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- Feb. Group Exhibition "We Won't stop showing", Set Woolwich, London
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- Jan. Royal College of Art WIP show, Online
- 2021
- Nov. Group Exhibition "Naturisms", 399 Hornsey Road, London
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- Apr. Group Exhibition "Sweep - Space - Surface", BankART Station, Yokohama
- 2020
- Mar. Tokyo Midtown×Ars Electronica "SCHOOL FESTIVAL OF THE FUTURE" Exhibition, Tokyo Midtown Design Hub, Tokyo
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- Feb. Group Exhibition "#404 Near Nowhere Newtopia" ,Gallery LE'DECO
- 2019
- Nov. Group Exhibition "Ball Pool",Tama University of the Arts
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- Sep. Aich Triennale あいちトリエンナーレ U27 Program Exhibition ,Art Lab Aichi
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- May. Solo Exhibition "Room", award granted by 100Banch
- 2018
- Sep. Solo Exhibition "A Tree without a Forest", Tokyo
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- Feb. Acousticlub vol.3 Performance "a Blue Sheep", Suginami City Hall, Tokyo
- 2017
- Sep. Group Exhibition "心に触れる装置展 - Touching machines", Keio University, Kanagawa
Curation/Publication
- 2022
- Dec. Curated Exhibition "Interassemblages - Nodal Relay", ACUD Galerie, Berlin
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- Dec. Critique on current environmental activism in relation to environmental racism and ecology
Tokyo Art Beat, 2022
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- Mar. Critique on "Welcome, Stranger, to this Place" published by Tokyo University of the Arts
MA Cutating Course,2022
Archive webiste / Exhibition website - 2021
- Sep. i+med(i/e)a magazine issue vol.1, “Beyond Female Gaze”
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- Apr. Bijyutsu Techo 美術手帖, critique written by Arata Hasegawa on her curated exhibition `Sweep - Space - Surface'
Fluctuating between 'Artists' and 'Students', Possibilities of Degree shows - ──
- Mar. Directed Exhibition at BankArt(JP)
“Sweep-Space-Surface”
Awards/Talks/Residencies
- 2022
- Selected Residencies, Standpoint Gallery, London
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- Grant Awarded, Sasakawa Foundation
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- Grant Awarded, Ezoe Memorial Recruit Foundation Scholarship
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- Grant Awarded, Kuma Foundation
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- Shortlisted, Bloomberg New Contemporaries
- 2021
- 3rd Prize, Sustainbility First Art Award
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- Shortlisted, Alpine Fellowship Visual Art Award
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- Grant Awarded, Kuma Foundation Scholarship
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- Grant Awarded, Ezoe Memorial Recruit Foundation Scholarship
- 2020
- Guest Speaker, Pre-talk SICF21
- 2019
- Nominated, CGC Contest
- 2017
- Special Jury Award, Art&Techinology Tohoku