Born in Osaka in 1997, Mayuko Inui currently resides in Tokyo. She completed a Master’s degree in the Department of Intermedia Art, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. She explores feminism and queer theory through video and performance art using her own body as material. In recent years her interests have focused on gender representation in ancient stories and folktales, and old songs and stories that have changed over time.

Major Activities and Awards
2023  Solo exhibition “Tamamayu (Double Cocoon)” (EUKARYOTE, Tokyo)
2021  CAF (Contemporary Art Foundation) Award, Kodama Kanazawa Prize
2020  Heisei Geijutsu Award

Message
I’m very interested in, and look forward to, seeing how “The Song of Kuzunoha” will be received by visitors to this space adjoining Tokyo Station that attracts people from diverse social and cultural backgrounds.

Born in 1991, Yuriko Iyanaga is based in Kyoto, where she has lived all her life. In 2018 she completed the Master‘s course in oil painting at Kyoto City University of Arts. She has focused on the altogether unique textures achievable only when creating works by computer: the ability to draw in units of pixels, for example, and the complete absence of uneven surfaces. Starting from this painterly perspective, she makes such normally invisible production processes part of her works, rendering the concept of “completion” ambiguous. Today Ms. Iyanaga also focuses on the physicality of the computer monitor or motherboard. Here, she explores expression unfettered by genre labels: e.g. the painterly yet three-dimensional aspect of the composition as a whole, or its installation-like aspect.

Major Activities and Awards
2023  Daisuke Yamashiro Prize at “SICF24” (Exhibition category)
2022  ARTISTS’ FAIR KYOTO 2022
2019  Yomiuri Shimbun Prize at “Kyoto Art for Tomorrow 2019”

Message
Being selected from among the many entrants in this nationwide open competition, the result of my having continuously experimented in my own way, is a source of great pride. While here I probe new ways of installation-like presentation with a conscious emphasis on space, my hope is to further expand my range of expression. Like the other finalists, I will do my very best to put together a good display of my works.

Originally hailing from Fukuoka Prefecture, where he was born in 1993, Takumaru Kondo is now based in Tokyo. In 2018 he completed the master’s course in oil painting in the Graduate School of Tama Art University. His works portray worlds artificially created by humans through technology and parallel worlds existing between the man-made and the natural. In recent years he makes drawings and videos based on his research into artificial spaces created in urban areas – botanical gardens, parks and the like – constructing parallel worlds from 3-dimensional computer graphics.

spaces created in urban areas – botanical gardens, parks and the like – constructing parallel worlds from 3-dimensional computer graphics.

Major Activities and Awards
2023  “New New Wave Fukuoka” (Koganecho Area Management Center, Yokohama)
2022  Changting Gallery Prize
2022  Solo exhibition “Coarse Partlcle Physicality: Drawing Distance of Reality” (IAF SHOP, Fukuoka)

Message
It would please me greatly if the images that happen to occur to me in everyday life form images that are conveyed to the viewer as expressions of what I feel. I hope to offer people who are alive today and those who are far away works that resonate even with the past and the future.

Born in Nagano Prefecture, Yuri Miauchi is a graduate of Kyoto University of Art and Design. After working in Okinawa and London, today she is based in Yokohama. She focuses on the sensations of the body, especially cutaneous and visceral sensations. In doing so, she raises questions of how we interpret, accept, or abandon these sensations which we all experience but can neither grasp nor control. In her production process, Ms. Miauchi creates layered constructions integrating the likes of gauze, postcards, sound, soil, resin, and robotic arms.

Major Activities and Awards
2023  Solo exhibition “Scraped Script: Peeled Lingering and Dawning Healing Ripples” (gallery N, Kanda, Tokyo)
2023  “VOCA Exhibition 2023” (The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo)
2022  “ARTS CHALLENGE 2022” Jury Prize

Message
For a long time this work faced difficulty meeting the basic requirements set for other awards. I hope this will set a precedent for not easily definable works to be given an opportunity to see the light of day.

Born in Chiba Prefecture in 1998, Hikari Mukai now lives in Tokyo. She graduated from Musashino Art University’s College of Art and Design, with a concentration in sculpture, in 2022. In the same way that, on passing by a sandy place, one might stop and build a sand castle before continuing on one’s way, through her creations Ms. Mukai collects her discoveries of many different things that constantly occur in the universe. Many of her creations are sculptures integrating a variety of materials.

Major Activities and Awards
2023  Solo exhibition “Rink Skater” (WALLA, Tokyo)
2022  Excellence Award, Musashino Art University Graduation Works 2021
2019  CSLAB x MELLOW Seminar Exhibition: “Observation and Practice about Gender”

Message
The BUG Art Award is the first time I entered an open competition. As I prepare, I am surprised at the many different things that come to mind when I realize that other people will be taking the time to consider my works. It’s odd to think that when I deliver my works for the exhibition, the weather will have turned quite cold. I’ll do my best!

Kohei Yamada was born in Osaka Prefecture in 1997 but now resides in Tokyo. He graduated from Musashino Art University in 2020 with a concentration in oil painting. In 2022 he completed the Master’s degree program in oil painting at Kyoto University of the Arts.

Major Activities and Awards
2023  Solo exhibition “Strikethrough” (Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo)
2022  Solo exhibition “As If to Hide It” (biscuit gallery, Tokyo)
2020  CAF (Contemporary Art Foundation) Award finalist

Message
I hadn’t entered competitions of this sort very much until now, and I’m very excited and eager to see how my works will look among many others of different genres, not just paintings. I’m hoping to make a good showing as a finalist.