Kazuko Miyamoto
Kazuko Miyamoto was born in 1942 in Tokyo, Japan, where she studied art at the Gendai Bijutsu Kenkyujo. Upon immigrating to New York City in 1964, Miyamoto enrolled at The Art Students League, where she took painting classes until 1968. Between 1968 and 1969, she studied printmaking at Pratt Graphic Art Center.
In 1969, Kazuko Miyamoto met Sol LeWitt on Hester Street in the Lower East Side and became one of his assistants. This encounter, which would become a lasting relationship between the two artists, marked a pivotal moment in Miyamoto’s practice as it led her to initiate sculptural explorations, such as her series of “String Constructions.”
Miyamoto’s work combines traces of Japanese tradition with gestures associated with post-minimalism and feminism across various mediums, notably in her “Kimono” series.
Institutional solo-shows include KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin, DE (2025); Belvedere Museum, Vienna, AT (2024); Madre Museum, Naples, IT (2024); and Japan Society, NYC (2022).
Miyamoto’s work is in the following public collections: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; Museum of Modern Art, Print Collection, NYC; SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT; Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, JP; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, JP; Neue Gallerie der Stadt, Linz, AT; Lentos Art Museum, Linz, AT; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, AU; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; Daimler Art Collection, Berlin, DE.
Solo Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
Press
2022
Kazuko Miyamoto: Works from 1966 to 2005 by Jonathan Goodman for The Brooklyn Rail.
Maverick Minimalist, Gallerist, Global Citizen by Holland Cotter for the New York Times.
Kazuko Miyamoto’s highly strung New York show leaves us wanting more by Ariella Budick for The Financial Times.
2021
4 Art Gallery Shows to See Right Now by Jillian Steinhauer for the New York Times.
2019
Art Students League to Present Landmark “Post-War Women” Exhibition, ArtfixDaily.
Frieze New York Opens, Artforum.
Decolonizing Western Narratives of Modern Art by Emily Sun for Hyperallergic.
2018
10 Things in Tokyo: October 2018 by Jennifer Pastore for Tokyo Art Beat.
2017
The Incessant Art of Kazuko Miyamoto by John Yau for Hyperallergic.
“The One with LeWitt”: Paul’s ART STUFF ON A TRAIN 214 by Paul Carey-Kent for FAD Magazine.
2016
Another Hidden Chapter of “70s Abstraction” by Thomas Michelli for Hyperallergic.
2014
Invisible-Exports; Artforum.
2009
Kunst aus Fäden; Welt am Sonntag, Germany.
2005
The East Hampton Star, November 10th; Art from Detritus
2004
Art in America, Lodz Biennale
La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, May 20th; Quando la Material si Rifa lo Spirito
1998
The New York Times, July 25th, by Jennifer Dunning
1984
Artforum, January, by Jean Silverthorne, (p.74); Midsummer Night‘s Dream
The New York Times, December, by Grace Glueck; Midsummer Night‘s Dream 1980 Artforum, October, by Ronny H. Cohen, (p.75); New York City
1979
Arts Magazine, May, by Janet Heit, (p.16)