The 52-year-old is an award-winning photographer with an unmistakable style; a film and TV series director whose works, such as the manga adaptation “Helter Skelter” (2012) and the Netflix original series “Followers” (2020), explore identity and desire with visceral allure; and a music video director who has collaborated with major Japanese acts like AKB48 and international stars such as Alicia Keys.
Her photos captivate with lush palettes and dreamlike nature motifs balancing the flowery and the dark, often juxtaposing the ephemeral and the eternal in her art, now brought to its most expansive scale in the exhibition “Ninagawa Mika with EiM: Lights of the beyond, Shadows of this world” at the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art, Higashiyama Cube.
The museum, close to the Higashiyama mountains, is a majestic setting, and Ninagawa’s evocative compositions have enveloped Kyocera’s partially transparent Higashiyama Cube, making use of the space’s interplay of light and openness. Ninagawa notes that Kyoto, a city where architecture whispers the passage of time, had a strong influence on her work.