Untitled, 2003

Ninagawa Mika
Untitled, 2003; from the series Liquid Dreams
Pigment print
8 x 10 in.
Edition of 20
Signed and numbered by the artist

Ninagawa Mika (born in Tokyo, 1972) is a renowned image­-maker working in the fields of film, fashion, and music. Raised by an actor-mother and a renowned theater­-director father, she was inspired to become “a person who can express something as soon as possible.” Around the age of ten, she began using a simple point­-and­-shoot camera. From this early start, her distinctive style has been characterized by bold and striking use of color, with vivid and hyper­-saturated hues, often incorporating flora and fauna such as wildflowers and aquatic animals. In the late 1990s, she gained recognition for her series Liquid Dreams, which showcases her unique aesthetic and imaginative approach using unconventional angles and close­-up perspectives. In 2000, Ninagawa received the Kimura Ihei Award alongside Nagashima Yurie and Hiromix. Since then, her work has increasingly incorporated portraiture and video along­side ongoing still photographs of flowers. As an acclaimed portrait artist, Ninagawa has photographed famous personalities in Japan and abroad, including Kuriyama Chiaki and Beyoncé. Her images intensify notions of beauty and femininity into potent fantasies, where women appear as empowered baroque deities in lush tableaux.