Minju Gwak

Minju Gwak is a Korean-born artist currently based in Ibaraki, Japan. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Global Art
Practice (GAP) at Tokyo University of the Arts. Working across tempera painting, installation, sculpture, and photography, her practice explores the shifting sensations between life and death, memory, and the awareness of being alive.
Rooted in personal experiences of solitude in nature, Gwak’s work centers on a sensation she calls the “Reawakening of Life,” which emerges through an awareness of vitality in herself and the world around her. Drawing from memories and images that accompany this sensation, she works with recurring motifs of water, journeys, places of refuge, and movements that reveal vitality. In March 2026, Gwak participated in Buinho Art Residency in Portugal, where she presented four works: Make It Home; A Home for a Home, and a Snail; Sixteen Seeds of Images in Flocking Flight; and A Mass Adrift in the Twilight.

B.F.A. in Oil Painting, Musashino Art University, 2025
M.F.A. candidate, Global Art Practice, Tokyo University of the Arts, 2026-present

2023
The 58th Shutai Exhibition, Selected
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

2025
Bijutsu Shinjin-sho Debut 2025, Selected
Ginza Wada Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2026
Group Exhibition at Buinho Residency, Portugal