Mayu Kunihisa

Mayu Kunihisa was born and raised in Osaka in the 80’s and 90’s before graduating from the London University of the Arts, Foundation Diploma in Art and Design University, in 2003. She then returned to Japan and began to develop a high interest for painted compositions, while pursuing her academic education with the completion of a Doctoral Degree from the Kobe Design University, in 2015. 

Mayu has been interested in The Vitruvian Man by the famous artist Leonardo da Vinci which has been itself based on a description in De Architectura by the Ancient Roman Architect Vitruvius. In this sketch drawn, he uses human body proportions and ratios as for instance the one stating that a person's arm span is about equal to his height. From those observations, Mayu Kunihisa creates circles using her own body, as a pair of compasses, using her size to set their diameters; a singular technique that allows for a privileged communion between the artist and his medium.

The overlapping arcs of circle represent light while colours vary on different times of the year and places where Mayu paints; a reflection of her mindset at the time she creates art. Initially, a canvas painting is no more than a flat finite surface; still, it carries the ability to absorb multi-dimensional aspects allowing Mayu’s works to captivate viewers’ attention. As Mayu uses her whole body obtain the desired shapes, it erases the distance, and creates a special relationship between the canvas and her; to the extend that she knows when her work is completed at the time she starts to feel a change in this singular connection. 

Selected works