Bio
Maiko Miyasaka (b. 1997, Japan) is a visual artist living and working on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓-speaking peoples, including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nation, in what is now known as Richmond, BC, Canada.
Born and raised in Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan, Miyasaka relocated to Richmond in 2021. Her practice explores themes of migration, identity, and belonging through abstraction informed by site-responsive observation and lived experience. As a Japanese immigrant and neurodivergent artist, she reflects on experiences of displacement, adaptation, and cultural negotiation.
Working primarily with acrylic, oil pastel, ink, and mixed media, Miyasaka develops compositions rooted in gestural mark-making, flattened perspective, asymmetrical composition, and attention to negative space. Her work draws from visual strategies and conceptual approaches originating in Japanese art that were historically appropriated and adapted within Western art movements. Through her practice, she reclaims and recontextualizes these visual languages through her cultural lens and contemporary experience.
Walks along the Fraser River and Terra Nova Beach inform her understanding of place as movement and adaptation. Observations of migratory and resident birds—symbols of transition and resilience—have become recurring motifs in her work.
