Umico Niwa explores the constraints and possibilities of personhood through drawing, sculpture, and installation. Her works incorporate both organic and recycled synthetical materials, culminating in hybrid creatures that resist normative classification systems. Anthropomorphic figures, assembled from foraged materials such as acorns, fruit rinds, seeds, and stems are encased within electroplated metal shells, or cast in pewter and adorned with leaves and petals. Niwa often affectionately refers to her sculptures as progeny - a sentiment heightened by the fact that she is unable to have children. The resulting works speak to a deep, palpable longing for transcendence - a desire for self-actualization not confined by conventional identity markers. By rejecting binary frameworks, Niwa seeks to expose the illusory divisions that contribute to bodily and spiritual dysphoria.

Umico Niwa (b. 1991, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan) lives and works between the USA and Japan. A newly commissioned installation is currently on view at the Sculpture Center, New York and will travel to Museo Tamayo, Mexico City in 2026. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include: Memory Palace at The Asia Society, Houston (2025); Gut Friendly, Public Gallery, London (2025); Becoming Feral, Towada Arts Centre, Japan (2024); The Harbinger of Luck: Made of Kisses and Clovers x+x+, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas (2024) My Life Inside a Shoe, XYZ Collective, Tokyo (2023); and The Quantified Elf (and how it came to love itself), Someday, New York (2022). Select group exhibitions include: Chanel Nexus Hall, Tokyo (2024); Simon Subal, New York (2022); Kristina Kite, Los Angeles (2021); and Miriam in New York (2020). She was a resident at The Houston Museum of Fine Arts (2023 - 2025) the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art (2022).