Makiko Harris

Available Works

In The Studio

Biography

Makiko Harris (b.1989, USA/Japan) makes mixed media paintings, sculptures, and installations that incorporate light and objects imbued with personal memory. The work is closely tied to Makiko's own body through its large scale and physically demanding process of creation. The labour of Makiko's practice includes building, stretching, scraping, flooding, staining, smearing, and forging. "I am half Japanese and half American, and from San Francisco, CA. I was born in The Netherlands, and have lived in Tokyo, Boston, New York, and California. My work has been collected by individuals internationally, is featured in corporate collections in the U.S., and has been licensed to Fortune-500 businesses. I am currently a master’s candidate in Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art, and live and work in London, UK. With theory rooted in my background in feminist philosophy, my work asks: How resilient is the body? What can we learn from embodied knowledge and the subconscious? How do we acknowledge physical and emotional vulnerability while boldly being open for the present Through a use of colour that references my own body’s pigmentation and media that connect to my personal history such as hair or artefacts like my grandmother’s knitting needles, I explore an abstracted concept of the self. Based on my own multiracial background, I push back on overt identity categorization and instead embrace what I believe is a more generative space of multiplicity and ambiguity. For example, my paintings are intentionally and necessarily abstract, even if through colour and form they reference my body and cultural identity."

Education

MA, Royal College of Art, 2021

BA, Tufts University, 2007-2011

Exhibitions

2022, Body Series, Pop-Up at Matt’s Gallery, London, UK (Solo)
2022, Can You Hear the Sound of Color, Town Hall Hotel, London, UK (Solo)
2022, A Line Made By Walking, Upper Gulbenkian Gallery, London, UK (Group)
2022, Hybrid Realities, Royal College of Art, London, UK (Group)
2022, CAPSalon, Dyson Gallery, London, UK (Group)
2022, Chromatic, PXP Contemporary, Online (Group)
2022, Falling Into Place, Liz Lidgett Gallery, Des Moines, IA, USA (Group)
2022, Work In Progress, Royal College of Art, London, UK (Group)
2021, Jewels of Consciousness, Pop-Up at Dyson Gallery, London, UK (Solo)
2021, 14th Anniversary Show, Secession Art & Design, San Francisco, CA, USA (Two-Person)
2021, Auction, Benefit Art Auction, Root Division, San Francisco, CA, USA (Group)
2021, A Joy Unexpected, Root Division, San Francisco, CA. Curator: Tavarus Blackmon, MA, MFA, and Fellow at the Headlands Center for the Arts and Parent Artist Fellow at the Kala Art Institute, USA (Group)
2021, In Sickness and in Health, Curina.co, Online (Group)
2021, TASTE, Benefit Art Auction, Root Division, San Francisco, CA, USA (Group)
2020, Truth or Consequences, The Academy, San Francisco, CA, USA (Solo)
2020, Truth or Consequences, Magnolia Brewing, San Francisco, CA, USA (Solo)
2019, Silent Conviction, Frank Ratchye Project Space, San Francisco, CA, Curator: Sherwin Rio, MFA and 2019 Graduate Fellow at Headlands Center for the Arts, USA (Solo)