BIO

Emi Wanibuchi is a Tokyo-based contemporary artist whose practice centers on painting and extends to installation and spatial works. She is interested in materials that transform through time and environment, things that shift beyond human intention, and what emerges at the boundaries between nature and the artificial, surface and underside, and life and death.

Wanibuchi does not restrict herself to a particular medium or technique, working with materials including washi paper, pigments, foil, acrylic, and oil paint according to the needs of each work. Through acts of scraping, layering, peeling, and burning, she treats materials not as fixed surfaces but as entities in a state of transformation.

For Wanibuchi, beauty is not something that exists from the outset. She is drawn to unexpected beauty emerging from things that are damaged, decaying, unstable, beyond control, or even inconvenient to humans, transforming them through her own hand into something else.

Wanibuchi’s seventeen years of training in Kyogen(a traditional performing art paired with Noh), followed by her experience as an actor, form an important foundation of her practice. Japanese traditional performing arts originated in ritual, while Western theatre has its roots in mythology, religion, and philosophy. Through experiencing these artistic traditions from within, Wanibuchi came to understand their histories and the roots of art from which they emerged.

Her 2024 series A New Planet marked a turning point in her practice, expanding her exploration of scale and material. Her current practice continues to explore the transformation of matter itself, space, and the relationship between the work and the viewer.

CV

Born in 1968 in Yokosuka Kanagawa,Japan.

Resides and works in Tokyo, Japan

EDUCATION/TRAINING :

1974-1981, Jyun Furusawa Art School Kanagawa,Japan

2001-2017, Kyogen Izumi Style (similar to traditional Japanese Noh Theatre.

The master is Manzo Nomura Ⅸ ) Tokyo,Japan

2007-2009, Voice Studies Bill Pepper Head of Voice Studies, NIDA -National Institute of Dramatic Art ,Sydney, Australia

2022-2025, Takeshi Nagai Japanese Art School Tokyo,Japan

2024-2025, Yabuta Kashu , Yuri Nakabayashi Kyoto Hanging roll school, Tokyo ,Japan

AWARDS, RESIDENCIES, GRANTS :

2025,
･ Aesthetica Art Prize 2025 , Longlist, UK
･ Takahiro Komatsu Prize,The 10th SHIBUYA ART AWARDS2024
SHIBUYA ART AWARDS, Elephant Studio ,Tokyo, Japan

2024,
･ Mr. & Mrs. Abe Arts & Culture Prize 2024,Selected Artist, Japan



SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2026,
　　･Open Atelier by the Sea and the Grass ー Seeing, Drawing, and Being , Sea Square , Yokosuka Museum of Art ,Kanagawa , Japan

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS :

2025,
･ Aesthetica Art Prize 2025, Longlist Exhibition, York art gallery,UK
･ CHIYODA × SHIBUGEI SHIBUYA ART AWARDS, Le Ginglet, Tokyo,
Japan
･ The 10th SHIBUYA ART AWARDS 2024 Prize exhibition, Elephant Studio,
Tokyo, Japan

2023-2025,
･ Takenoko kai Group Exhibition The Japan Art Institute, Tokyo,Japan

SELECTED PRESS :

2026,
　　･Interview on SHONAN PLAY GROUND, FM YOKOHAMA SHONAN BY THE SEA , Japan
　　･Tokyo Art Beat - Exhibition listing, 2026

2025,
･ Aesthetica Art Magazine,UK
2024,
･ Mr. & Mrs. Abe Arts Culture Prize 2024 ” Maison Catalog ,Japan

COLLECTIONS:

2026,
･Because There Is No Planet B　Collection of Javier Goyeneche, Founder of Ecoalf

SELECTED PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES :
Selected professional actives include international workshops and lecture I Noh and Kyogen performance in Portugal, Chile , and Australia.