Naoko Benom-Miura

One day, when I was 8, I had to draw my mom as a homework assignment. After painting my mom's face. I worked on the background, adding bright red. Strangely, my mom's face looked like it shrank as I changed the background. I was shocked to see how colors change what we perceive in our minds and with our eyes. That was when I decided to become an artist.

I worked on sketches, pencil drawings, and design all day from morning to night, and sometimes even in my dreams in order to enter an art college. i was able to enter art school in Tokyo, majoring in textile design, and stayed in Tokyo after college to work as a graphic designer. After 8 years of this hectic lifestyle, I felt like I was totally lost. I knew I needed to change everything right then. I chose to leave Japan, and went to Los Angeles, California, and then, to Eugene, Oregon, to work on my art and my life.

I worked for a clay artist, and went to the University of Oregon to study more about art, design and English. Then, I worked at a design office as a graphic designer, and another company as a web designer. Now, I know what I was looking for when I was doing that. I was looking for the answer these questions.
“What’s my relationship with design? What’s my relationship ...

Hiroshima Art Laboratory
Joshibi University of Art and Design, Tokyo, Japan, A.A. major: textile design
(Joshibi is known as one of the 5 best private art schools in Japan)
University of Oregon, Eugene Oregon, Art, design, sociology, and language classes
MoMA Online Course – The Museum of Modern Art, New York
"What Is Contemporary Art?" (Completed in 2023)
DOOR Program, Tokyo University of the Arts, Completed in 2025

1991 Joshibi University of Art and Design, Tokyo, Exhibition
1993 Design Festival Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan
1994 Design Festival Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan
1994 Copperplate printing group "Zabo House" Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan
1995 Copperplate printing group "Zabo House" in Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan

2013 Started to plan exhibitions, events and festivals

2013 "Kids Outsider Art Exhibitions" producer and contributor
2015 the first own exhibition
2016 Outsider Art "Cats and Jimi Hendrix" producer and contributor
2016 "Kids Outsider Art Exhibitions" producer and contributor, Hiroshima, Japan
2016 Started "Once a Month Exhibits"
2016 "Kids Outsider Art Exhibitions" producer and contributor, Fukuoka, Japan
2017 "Kids Outsider Art Exhibitions" producer and contributor, Fukuoka, Japan
2018 Exhibition in Darkness, "Two Tone"
2019 "Cats and Dogs" exhibition
2019 Art Festival in Forest, Fukuoka, Japan
...... and many more