BIO
Maria Mitsumori works between two inseparable practices, both rooted in raw mineral stone. In one, she grinds that stone herself into pigment — working within and beyond a centuries-old tradition of Japanese mineral painting. In the other, she presents the same stone unground and unaltered, mounted against machined metal. The Monolith series — the center of her practice — holds a raw specimen of azurmalachite or lapis lazuli against brushed stainless steel: geological time alongside industrial precision, the uncontrollable set against the made.
The conceptual ground beneath both practices is continuous transition — the understanding that all matter generates, breaks down, and moves into another form. What we call destruction is not an ending but a passage. A stone before polishing carries its chips and fissures openly; those marks are not flaws but evidence of process. Manufactured materials, too, will eventually weather and return to the earth. By placing natural and industrial matter in deliberate tension, Mitsumori makes this cycle present — not as metaphor, but as physical fact.
Her relationship with natural materials is neither thematic nor symbolic. It is inherited and lived. Her grandfather’s deep attentiveness to the natural world formed the earliest layer of her sensibility; years spent in Switzerland — where landscape, restraint, and material honesty are inseparable from daily life — reinforced it. Working with stone is not a decision. It is an inevitability. Each work carries a quiet charge of family, memory, and continuity, where material becomes a site of relational presence rather than representation.
Born in Japan and raised in Hong Kong and Switzerland, Mitsumori studied at Webster University Geneva. Her work has been exhibited at the National Museum of Singapore, the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris (juried, 2022 and 2023), and The Holy Art Gallery in London, and presented at international art fairs in New York, Paris, Dubai, and Tokyo. She received an Honorable Mention at Le Salon des Artistes Français. In 2024, her work was selected for the Lunar Codex Polaris Collection — a permanent archive of human creative expression sent to the moon.
EDUCATION
2012 B.B.A., Webster University, Geneva, Switzerland
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026 To be announced – Mitsukoshi Hiroshima(広島三越), Hiroshima, Japan
2026 Destruction and Regeneration, Isetan Shinjuku(伊勢丹新宿店), Tokyo, Japan
2025 Between the end and the beginning, Yutenji House, Tokyo, Japan
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Art Show in OKINAWA, Ryubo(沖縄リウボウ), Okinawa, Japan
2024 ブレイク前夜展 Part.1, GINZA SIX, Tokyo, Japan
2024 ブレイク前夜展 Part.2, Empathy Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2022 The Exhibition of Selected Japanese Contemporary Artists, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore
2022 Catharsis, The Holy Art Gallery, London, UK
ART FAIRS
2026 Artexpo New York, New York, USA
2025 Art Shopping Expo Paris, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France
2025 World Art Dubai, World Trade Centre, Dubai, UAE
2023 Art Capital, Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris, France (Juried)
2023 Superfine NYC, Iron 23, New York, USA
2022 World Art Dubai, World Trade Centre, Dubai, UAE
2022 Art Capital, Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris, France (Juried)
2021 Art Shopping Expo Paris, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France
AWARDS
2023 Honorable Mention, Le Salon des Artistes Français, Art Capital
2022 Finalist in the Landscape Category, 16th ARC Salon
NOTABLE COLLECTIONS
2024 The Lunar Codex project (Polaris collection)
2023 Setouchi Aonagi Retreat by Onko Chishin 瀬戸内リトリート青凪 by 温故知新
PUBLICATIONS | PRESS
2024 The Art Side of the Moon, Sunny Coast Showdown, Documentary film
2024 ONBEAT Vol.20 Featured Young Artists
2023 ブレイク前夜〜次世代の芸術家たち〜#402, BS Fuji
2023 Gizmodo: 次の世につなぐために…月にアートを送る計画「Lunar Codex」