Featured Artist: Izumi Miyazaki

Broken Mirrors Exhibition

M I L O S T K A C E N T E R F O R E X H I B I T I O N S

Based in Pittsburgh, PA Instagram: zumimiyazaki

Biography

My work is overwhelmingly figurative and often deals with my upbringing as a Japanese-American woman. I am most interested in acrylic and oil paintings as well as marker drawings. My primary influences are Enrico Robusti, Marc Chagall, anime, and Japanese woodblock prints.

Artist Statement

My art is mostly two-dimensional and showcases a heavy distortion of figures. I work with Copic markers, gel pens, acrylic paints, and oil paints that allow me to focus on creating a wide and busy range of colors in my pieces. The content of my art is all highly personal, oftentimes about my family and the many struggles that they go through, but also about my relations with past partners and friends. Although my art is personal and primarily for me to come to terms with my life, I also want the viewer to empathize with the mood that my figures visually project regardless of whether they know the exact meaning; whether that be melancholy, rage, deep thought, boredom, sadness, etc., I want my work to be relatable and engaging.

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"You speak good English"

Artist: Izumi Miyazaki

Media: Acrylic and Oil on Canvas

Date: 2021

Dimensions: 20" X 24"

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Interview

What do you aim to say by the themes in your art? ​I want my art to create a world that my audience wants to join. Many of my paintings have a very physically inclusive composition in which the viewer is part of the composition, sitting amongst the figures within a circle, or seems to have walked in and interrupted a very close knit group of figures. Whatever themes I portray within my art, I want the viewers to be considered within the composition.

Where does your inspiration come from? Much of my inspiration comes from the visual culture I have been exposed to as the child of Japanese parents. Many of the early TV shows I grew up with were anime and the books and manga I read had very distinct lines and colors that were different from many American-style books and cartoons. As I grew older, my inspiration came from figurative artists like Egon Schiele, Enrico Robusti, Kehinde Wilde, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Marc Chagall.

Do you have experiences that impacted your art? Meeting more artists definitely has widened the scope of what I believed that I could do. Surrounding myself with many more creative people as I entered college allowed me to build confidence surrounding my art making and gave me new perspectives that I could communicate through my art.

Do you feel your art challenges existing barriers? I believe my art challenges existing barriers in that it draws attention to problems that Japanese women have always experienced and that Japanese American women go through daily. My work often centers around the topic of sexism and racism and I believe those are topics that can be discussed in several different nuanced ways throughout my works. What are your long-term artistic goals? My long term artistic goal is to be a full-time working artist primarily doing exhibitions. What advice do you have for aspiring artists? My advice for aspiring artists is to keep making art and exposing yourself to a wider array of art that can inspire you.

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View more of the Broken Mirrors Exhibition down below!

VIEW EXHIBITION HERE

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Interested to know more?

Check out our Catalog AVAILABLE SOON!

Catalog will be available for purchase beginning June 12th in print and digital download

View the catalog on the exhibition page, and see all exhibited works, artist statements, and artist bios. Catalog are available for purchase in print (worldwide shipping) or for digital download! 100% of proceeds go to our Artist Fund for arts accessibility to keep exhibitions free!

VIEW OR PURCHASE CATALOG HERE

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Follow more closely with the Broken Mirrors Exhibition

Culturally Arts Collective

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About

Culturally Arts Collective, an international serving nonprofit organization, works for tangible reform for arts accessibility and representation through education, exhibition, outreach, professional development, and consulting.

We work to cultivate a culture of artistic innovation upholding the academic integrity of the arts, uplifting contemporary expression, and challenging the status quo.

We want to give artists the opportunity to express their own ideas and viewpoints, creating an experience that expands horizons by bringing together diverse ideologies.

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Press Inquiries? Contact the Senior Curator. Jenny Chernansky jchernansky@culturallyarts.com Ana Lagidze alagidze@culturallyarts.com Curatorial Affairs by Ana Lagidze, Jenny Chernansky, Anwar Mohammad, Natali Dobreva

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