Chiho Iwase

My practice is motivated by the remains of my childhood fantasy and exploration of visual playfulness. I could describe my work as a form of embodied fantasy and a reflection of the conflict between maturity and childishness. My work questions the status of being mature and faces up to disregarded primitive ideas.
I also attempt to express the situation in which my repressed negative emotion uncontrollably comes out as a result of uncomfortable feelings that undermine my personality. In this sense, my works are the portraits of my inner monstrous characters.
My sculptures often consist of the distorted images of my face or the segments of my body, and skin-like textures to bring them to an uncanny state. In addition, the significant items of childhood or childish gestures often appear in the shapes. I also tend to use fabrics and craft oriented materials to provide my works with the sense of nostalgia.
My work also has Japanese taste of the kitsch of its subcultures. I am under the influence of the popularity of cuteness in contemporary Japanese society, which implies regret of growing up and the pathological longing for permanent childhood.
Recently I have been working on painting based on my unfinished sculptures and exper...

Chelsea College of Art & Design (University of The Arts London), BA Fine Art, Sculpture
Chelsea College of Art & Design, Diploma in Foundation Studies (Art & Design); Fine Art
Joshiji University of Art & Design, Tokyo, Japan, Oil Painting Course

2016 Meet the Artists, pop up gallery in Hoxton, London
2015 ING Discerning Eye Exhibition at The Mall, London
2014 Projekt. group exhibition at Projekt.STS, London
2014 VANITAS at Karin Janssen Project Space, London
2014 Standing on the Frontier Vol 2 at Unite 24 Gallery, London
2014 A Body, My Heads at Window gallery ASC studios, London
2013 Hot One Hundred at Schwarts Gallery, London
2013 Void Open 2013 at Hoxton Arches, London
2013 Raw Skin at Karin Janssen Project Space, London
2012 Modern Panic 3 by Guerrilla Zoo at Apiary Studios, London
2012 The Zeitgeist Open 2012 at Zeitgeist Art Projects, London
2011 Salon Art Prize 2011 at Matt Roberts Arts
2011 Squash Box at The Grocery (Heel Art Collective), London
2011 Play Time at Long White Cloud, London
2011 Chiho Iwase Solo Show at The Grocery (Heel Arts Collective), London
2011 double lives: duple trials at the Malt Cross Gallery, Nottingham
2010 Standing on the Frontier at Madam Lillie's, London
Link; Glass Magazine
2009 Melquiades at Crypt Gallery St. Pancras Church, London
2009 The Beauty, or the Beast? 2 plus Totonoma Project at Gallery Q, Tokyo (Japan)
2008 en rote at Nolias Gallery, London
2008 Hide & Seek at Macondo Gallery, London
2...