about

Mayumi Terada

Visual artist - art photography and sculpture.

Born in Tokyo, raised and educated in New York, Ashiya (Hyogo prf.) and Tokyo.

Received MFA from Tsukuba University in1989. Living and working in New York.

Started career as a sculptor in 1985. The sculpture was attempted to transform a two-dimensional image into three dimensions sculptures with the idea, “What are photographic sculptures?” The sculpture works are objects of ordinary life; clothes, underwear, shoes and bags rendered in plastic sheets. “Jumper Jones” is one of these works, which is an out of scale, hard and transparent jumper nobody can wear, inspired by Jasper Johns’ art especially “Painted Bronze (ale Cans, Ballentine)” expressed the semiotic nature of objects as subjects.

"Jumper Jones" was awarded The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Prize at the 17th Contemporary Art Exhibition in Japan in 1985, and is in the collection of The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Tranparant plastic sculptures Including the following works, "Mr. Jones", "Underwear" and "Family Portrait" were exhibited in four solo shows and invited to eleven group shows including Seibu Art Museum Osaka, Museum of Modern Art Saitama, Nerima Art Museum Tokyo, Itabashi Art Museum Tokyo, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art and more with exhibition catalogs.

Started photographic works in 2001. These are photographs of miniature models of interior spaces with everyday motifs assembled by her. Choosing objects, door, curtain, table, chair, bookshelf, dish etc. to call up universal images. For example in “Door” was applied the proportions of “Fresh Widow” by Marcel Duchamp. “Bookshelf” applied the concept of “The Empty Library” in Berlin by Micha Ullman. And “Shower” applied “La Maison de La Celle-Saint-Cloud’ in Paris by Jean-Pierre Raynaud. She used natural light to take photograph and printed on gelatin silver paper in the series Doll House and Living Absence, Choosing Scenery and Invisible Boundary in 2001 ~2011.

Started making color photography in 2012. These images were created using the same method as previous works, photographed miniatures. Green House series in 2012~ 2015, Green Shade series in 2015 are color image finished by pigment print.

Twenty-three solo exhibitions of photography were held in North America, Europe and Asia including The Museum of Photography Seoul, Nerima Art Museum Tokyo, Singapore Japanese Embassy and Robert Miller Gallery New York. Additionally another solo show is scheduled in 2020. These works were also invited eighteen group shows including Japan Society New York, James Hyman Gallery London, French Embassy Tokyo and Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art.

Received by these photography works a Fellowship at the Woodstock Artists Residence Program for Photographic Art in 2002, AIM (Artist in Market Place) Education Program from the Bronx Art Museum in 2003, an Overseas Study Program Grant for Artists from the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan 2003. Received a NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) Fellowship in the category of Photography in 2006. And received Pola Art Foundation Grant in 2018.

The first book of photography “In The Bright Room” was published by Kyuryudo Art Publishing in 2003 and a second book of photography “Living Absence” was published by Gram Books in November 2009. Solo exhibition catalogs were published by The Nerima Art Museum Tokyo, The Museum of Photography Seoul, Base Gallery Tokyo and Robert Miller Gallery New York.

Six Foot Platform is twelve inches sculpture started in 2014. These small pieces are not architect model for functional houses, they are home for a person who dose not have a physical body.

Currently working on photography and sculpture with the theme Absence.

For more information please contact to maytera8@gmail.com