Profile
Miwa Komatsu
Born 1984 in Nagano, Japan
Lives and works in Sakaki, Nagano
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Miwa Komatsu’s work emerges from a heightened sensitivity to the invisible forces that shape our world. Growing up in close communion with nature, she encountered life and death not as distant concepts, but as vivid realities that left a profound imprint on her perspective.
These formative experiences nurtured a worldview grounded in the quiet belief that all living beings are intimately connected through a shared essence.
Her richly detailed compositions—inhabited by sacred beings and symbolic creatures—serve as thresholds between the seen and unseen, inviting contemplation of deeper realms of existence.
Through years of disciplined introspection and ceremonial practice, she has developed a creative philosophy The Great Harmonization, which seeks to bring coherence to opposing forces such as the physical and the metaphysical, the temporal and the timeless.
Komatsu’s work does not offer comfort through calmness, but instead captivates with a dynamic presence—revealing a universe where ancestral memory, transformation, and reverence for life converge.
CV
Solo Exhibitions
- 2025
- Sacred Nexus: Resonating with Cosmos, Sapporo Art Park Museum, Sapporo, Japan
- Sacred Nexus, Whitestone Gallery, Hong Kong, China
- 2024
- Miwa Komatsu: Sense of Sacredness, Whitestone Gallery Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
- 2023
- Miwa Komatsu : Sense of Sacredness, Whitestone Gallery Singapore, Singapore
- Miwa Komatsu: Keep Lighting Keep Walking – special presentation celebrating the museum’s new acquisition of the work Keep Lighting Keep Walking, Nagano Prefectural Art Museum, Nagano, Japan
- 2022
- Miwa Komatsu : Transparent Chaos -Spirituality and Mandala, Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki, Japan
- Miwa Komatsu : Spirituality and Mandala, Zenkoji Temple, Nagano, Japan
- 2021
- Miwa Komatsu : Prayer and Communion, Nagano Prefectural Art Museum, Nagano, Japan
- 2020
- Miwa Komatsu : Prayer for Nature,Woodone Museum of Art, Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima, Japan
- 2019
- Miwa Komatsu : World of Divine Spirits, Tomioka Art Museum,Tomioka, Japan
- 2018
- Miwa Komatsu : The World of Prayer, Karuizawa New Art Museum, Nagano, Japan
- Miwa Komatsu : The World of Prayer, Oyama Chusaku Museum, Nihonmatsu, Fukushima, Japan
- 2014
- Miwa Komatsu Exhibition – Dreams and Challenges of a Painter, Ueda City Art Museum, Ueda, Nagano, Japan
Group Exhibitions
- 2024
- Zipangu : Contemporary Artists Who Defined the Heisei Era, Hiroshima Museum of Art, Hiroshima, Japan
- Zipangu : Contemporary Artists Who Defined the Heisei Era, Saga Prefectural Art Museum, Saga, Japan
- Ashikaga Real Art Experience : That Opens A New World of Art, Ashikaga Museum of Art, Ashikaga, Tochigi, Japan
- 2022
- Fukushima Biennale 2022 Fugetsu Art Festival, Suirakuen Garden, Nanko Park, Fukushima, Japan
- 2021
- Exhibition of the Omoi Tsumugi Foundation Collection, Ashikaga Museum of Art, Ashikaga, Tochigi, Japan
- 2018
- Fukushima Biennale 2018 Choyō Art Festival, Nihonmatsu, Fukushima, Japan
- A Colossal World, Whitebox, New York, United States
- 2016
- Fukushima Biennale 2016 Choyō Art Festival, Chieko Takamura’s Birthplace, Nihonmatsu, Fukushima, Japan
- A Sustaining Life, Waterfall Gallery, New York, United States
- 2013
- L’exposition du Prix CANSON® 2013, Petit Palais, Paris, France
Performances
- 2024
- Live Painting Performance, Fitzrovia Chapel, London, United Kingdom
- 2024
- Live Painting Performance, Mont Saint-Michel Abbey, Normandy, France
- 2023
- Live Painting Performance, Mont Saint-Michel Abbey, Normandy, France
- 2022
- Live Painting Performance, Itsukushima Shrine, Hiroshima, Japan
- Live Painting Performance, Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki, Japan
- 2019
- Live Painting Performance, Venice International Film Festival, Lazzaretto Vecchio, Venice, Italy
- Live Painting Performance, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH,United States
- 2018
- Live Painting Performance, Maison Christian Dior, Paris, France
- Live Painting Performance, Dallas Art Fair, Dallas,TX,United States
- 2017
- Live Painting Performance, Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho, Tokyo, Japan
- Live Painting Performance, Whitestone Gallery Taipei, Taipei,
- 2016
- Live Painting Performance, The Nippon Club, New York, United States
- 2015
- Live Painting Performance, Chelsea Flower Show, London, United Kingdom
- 2014
- Live Painting Performance, Izumo Taisha Grand Shrine, Shimane, Japan
Public Collections
- United Kingdom
- British Museum (London)
- United States
- World Trade Center (New York)
- Residence of the incumbent honorary consul in Cleveland (Ohio)
- France
- Commune of Le Mont-Saint-Michel (Normandy)
- Taiwan
- O-Bank Headquarters (Taipei)
- Nan Pao Resins (Taipei)
- Catwalk Entertainment TAIPEI (Taipei)
- Singapore
- Ho Bee Group (Buona Vista)
- China
- Amanyangyun (Shanghai)
- Japan
- Nagano Prefectural Art Museum (Nagano)
- Woodone Museum of Art (Hiroshima)
- Iwate Education Center (Iwate)
- Adachigahara Furosatomura Senjinkan (Fukushima)
- Omoi Tsumugi Foundation (Tochigi)
- Chiba Bank Headquarters (Chiba)
- Shibuya Parco (Tokyo)
- Hotel & Museum Royal Classic Osaka (Osaka)
- Tokyo Garden Terrace, Kioi Conference (Tokyo)
- Zenko-ji Temple (Nagano)
- Kuon-ji Temple (Yamanashi)
- Tomioka Hachimangu Shrine (Tokyo)
- Izumo Grand Shrine (Shimane)
- Itsukushima Shrine (Hiroshima)
- To-ji Temple (Kyoto)
- Koyasan Kongobuji Temple (Wakayama)
- Simose Art Museum (Hiroshima)
Publications
- 2024
- Finding Your Role in the World (Taiwanese edition, Linking Books)
- 2022
- Miwa Komatsu: Transparent Chaos — Spirituality and Mandala (Kyuryudo Art Publishing)
- 2020
- Finding Your Role in the World (Simplified-Chinese edition, Hunan Literature & Art Publishing House)
- The Mission of the Divine Beasts (Hunan Literature & Art Publishing House)
- 2018
- Miwa Komatsu: Yamato Power to the World (Kyuryudo Art Publishing)
- Finding Your Role in the World (Diamond, Inc.)
- 2015
- Miwa Komatsu Works (Kindle edition, Creek & River Co.)
- 2014
- Miwa Komatsu: Path of the Artist in Her 20s, 2004–2014 (Kadokawa)