Artist Profile

Ellie Omiya

Ellie Omiya was born in Osaka in 1975, and graduated from the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She began to pursue an independent career after working at an advertising agency, engaging in projects across various genres as an accomplished author, stage play director, screenwriter and director for television programs and films, and also as a radio personality. From 2012 she started holding interactive solo exhibitions presenting works conveying various images and text, which are completed through viewer’s participation. Omiya has gained high acclaim for her solo exhibitions including “To Convey Emotions” (toured PARCO MUSEUM and other venues, 2012-13), “To Be Alive” (PARCO MUSEUM, 2013), and “Message from the Starry Sky” (toured MITSUBISHI ESTATE ATRIUM and other venues, 2013-2014).

Omiya’s journey as an artist began in 2012, when she was asked to produce a live drawing at the Gallery of Horyuji Treasures inside the Tokyo National Museum to celebrate Mr. Soichiro Fukutake’s receipt of the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award. This first ever drawing she produced, “Celebration Melody: Naoshima” (currently in the private collection of Mr. Fukutake), while unexpectedly marking the beginning of her painterly practice, had received much attention and acclaim as her debut work.

Ever since, Omiya has held numerous solo exhibitions such as “emotional journey” (Daikanyama Hillside Terrace, Tokyo) and “painting dreams” (Shibuya Hikarie 8/ CUBE, Tokyo) in 2015, followed by her first museum solo exhibition in 2016, “Sincerely Yours, Ellie Omiya”(Towada Art Center, Aomori), in which she also presented works outside the museum in the city’s local shopping arcade. In 2017, she held the solo exhibition “This is forest speaking” (Kanaz Forest of Creation, Fukui), and in 2018 participated in “Rokko Meets Art 2018” where she created and presented “Mansion of a Widow.” The work was featured in her 2019 solo exhibition “Beautiful Days” (Daikanyama Hillside Terrace / Hillside Forum, Tokyo) along with her new large-scale installation “One Day’s Picnic.” She continues to rapidly develop and progress in her career as an artist, publishing her new catalogue of illustrations and texts, “Whale of Rainbow” from Bijutsu Shuppan-sha in February 2019, also in March holding “A Wonderful Forest” (TICOLAT TAMURA, Hong Kong) which marks her first solo exhibition at an overseas gallery.