Biographical Sketch

Masayo Nishimura is a native of Osaka, Japan. In 1993, she began her study of photography at Hunter College, City University of New York, under Professor Mark Feldstein, where she discovered her interest in New York City subway stations. Since then, her subway-themed photography has been exhibited in various galleries around New York City.

In 1999, while continuing her study of photography, she also completed her MFA in Computer Art. Her thesis film, the animated “Dream”—a subway love story—has been screened worldwide, including at the Museum of Modern Art as an official selection of the New Directors/New Films Festival, sponsored by the Cinema Society of Lincoln Center and MoMA.

In 2000, she started working on a series of color photographs engaging the light and shadows created by subway architecture. This work, entitled Uptown Bound, was first exhibited in September 2001 in New York City and has received enthusiastic responses from viewers. Since 2008, she has often returned to her native Japan and captured everyday scenes in the Tokyo subways and streets. These works were first exhibited in 2011, in Recollections: From New York to Tokyo. This show revealed the transformation of an everyday scene into a unique window onto city life that unexpectedly told a story.

In 2012, she traveled to the northern Pacific coast of Japan and documented the aftermath of tsunami-hit towns. This work, The New Horizon - Scenes in northern Japan nearly two years after the disaster, was exhibited in 2014.

Besides being a visual artist, she is also active as a playwright creating multicultural themed plays. She is a member of Dramatists Guild Inc. Currently she lives and works in New York City, employed as a NY state licensed massage therapist.

 

For more information, contact:
Masayo Nishimura
mniart@aol.com
http://multisoup.com

 

*Photos from 2009 exhibition "Uptown bound" at Ceres gallery, New York City