100 Copies with Blueberry Express by Misaki Kawai

Born in 1978 in Osaka, Japan, Misaki Kawai is the daughter of an architect, and a seamstress. Finding inspiration in western pop culture, specifically 60’s fashion and hippie culture, Misaki began to design her own clothes – favoring a haphazard, handmade look.

Graduating from the Kyoto College of Art in Kyoto, Japan in 1999, Misaki traveled the world and developed her “heta-uma” style. A Japanese art form that is technically bad (i.e., naïve or amateurish), Misaki has produced pieces that keep an innocent, honest integrity and adolescent, yet sophisticated playfulness.

Misaki’s past exhibitions have included bizarre and beautiful installations such as an earth-themed amusement park in outer space, a towering treehouse for glam rockers, a beach party with surfers riding a gigando wave, and a fleet of various-sized airplanes carrying rock and roll bands from the 1960s. The esteemed New York Times art critic Roberta Smith described Misaki Kawai’s first solo show at Kenny Schachter Contemporary as a “tour-de-force debut”.