Miho Sawada (1944 – 2023)
Miho Sawada received her BFA from Kyoto City College of Art in 1967.
However, finding the prevailing ethos of the Japanese art world difficult for non-traditional artists, especially women, she immigrated to Canada in 1968.
The following year she studied at the New School of Art in Toronto and exhibited in the Annual Exhibition of the Ontario Society of Artists. From 1974 on Sawada held solo exhibitions, in Toronto, Hamilton, London, Vancouver, Japan and the US, and taught courses at OCAD and the universities of Western Ontario, Guelph, Toronto, and Penn State.
Throughout her career, Sawada explored the indivisibility of time and space, and that of the place of humans within that concept. Each installation is “completed” by the presence of viewers, who are essential to the function of the piece. Whether seeing themselves and others in reflective mylar and transparent plexiglass, experiencing the apparent movement of figures cut from Corten steel, or experiencing the dancing and/or drumming artists performing in the aesthetic context created by her installation, the human experience is integral to the work.
Leave a Reply