Masako Miki
Empathy Lab
May 18 – June 30, 2023
Opening reception: Thursday, May 18, 2023, 6:00-8:00 pm

RYAN LEE is pleased to announce Empathy Lab, the first major exhibition of a debut body of work by Bay Area-based Japanese contemporary artist Masako Miki. The landmark solo show proudly introduces new works to her Shapeshifters series, which roots its expressions in the animistic polytheism of Shinto traditions. Conceiving of the gallery as a home, Miki constructs various spaces for casual connection and contemplation, from an engawa deck to an open garden-scape dotted with deity-inspired bronze and felt creatures, objects, and forms, alongside vibrant drawings that convey the outside world.

Empathy Lab ignites the artist’s common theme of questioning how tradition and folklore offer grounds for exploring bicultural identity. In her characters—whose designs are rooted in deep histories of animistic mythology—sacredness is implied, regardless of diversity in form, texture, surface or material make-up. “Normalcy” is supplanted by a divine plurality of identity, significant and celebrated in each unique sense of selfhood.

In their exaltation, some of the characters are literally uplifted. Inspired by the engawa element characteristic of Japanese architecture—a transitional wood-deck bridging residential interior and exterior spaces—Miki elevates a portion of the gallery to invite and welcome interaction with the art, and perhaps most importantly with one another.

Holistically responding to the gallery’s layout, she envisioned tokonoma spaces too, another architectural element common in Japanese housing. This area showcases Miki’s Shapeshifters in a deliberately homey, communal setting inspired by the everyday engagement that passersby may have with friends and neighbors, or even with houses of deities (shrines) in Japan. “This casual socialization can lead to meaningful connections, and shared experience is the first step to building communities,” says Miki. In Shinto folklore, “there are a myriad of gods in this universe, yet they can only fulfill their duties as a collective. I resonate these ideas in my work as a reminder of how we endeavor our challenges together.”

The exhibition, as such, offers more than just its physical experience—it suggests multiple vibrant entry points into exploring the junctures of tradition and modernity, and the cultural marriages that they often signal. The cast bronze pieces express the “synthesis of combining two finishes of century-old patina with the modern invention of automotive paint,” which is an extremely complex color application process; while the similarly involved process of creating the felt characters utilizes wool, activating multitudes of design phases before reaching final form.

This presentation of new works is ultimately about reclaiming the power of myth-making. We are told and we succumb to stories that punctuate our shared histories with painful and unresolved tensions.“Our lives are filled with mythologies, manipulated ideologies, and fear-driven narratives that deepen chasms among us,” says Miki. Her work proposes resolution through creative and communal agency, exhibiting through her characters and environments the optimistic reality of the power of imagination to drive the future. “I am convinced that we need new mythologies to question old myths. We can update the myths.”

Masako Miki (b. 1973 Osaka, Japan) is a multimedia artist whose work ranges installation and large-scale sculpture, printmaking, watercolor and felting. A native of Japan, she now lives and works in Berkeley, CA. Her work frequently explores the idea of synthesis—manipulating contradicting spatial elements to suggest a disoriented context and space. The artist bases her narrative on her own experiences of becoming bicultural in the United States at the age of eighteen. Strongly influenced by craft and folk art of different cultures, she remains close to her ancestral traditions, frequently considering motifs and ideologies that arise from her association with Buddhism, Shintoism, and traditional Japanese folklore. The artist’s practice is further rooted in the belief that art can foster social contexts in which contemporary and universally relevant mythologies and social narratives can be generated—replacing or fixing harmful misconceptions and mythologies of the past that have previously sparked social injustices.

Miki has been included in solo and group exhibitions at the ICA San Jose, CA (2022); Katonah Museum of Art, NY (2022); Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, CA (2022); Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, CA (2019); and de Young  Museum, CA (2016), among others. Her large-scale sculptures were recently commissioned as a permanent installation at the Uber Technologies headquarters in Mission Bay, San Francisco. Her work is included in the collections of The Byrd Hoffman Water Mill Foundation, NY and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, CA. She received her MFA from San Jose State University.

About RYAN LEE
Celebrating emerging and established artists and estates, RYAN LEE takes a multi-generational approach to its programming, presenting innovative and scholarly exhibitions across all spectrums of art practices, including painting, photography, video, sculpture, and performance. The gallery takes chances on a wide variety of boundary-pushing artists; their work consistently transcends political, cultural, material, or technical boundaries. In addition, RYAN LEE has, throughout its history, demonstrated its long-standing interest and dedication to feminist, Black and Asian American, as well as queer narratives in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. Founded in 2013 by Mary Ryan and Jeffrey Lee, the gallery is led by partners of different generations and backgrounds with over six decades of combined experiences informing its unique approach.