Umi Ishihara
B.1993 Tokyo, Japan

I create experimental narrative films that connect personal memories with social realities, focusing on the lived histories of marginalised communities. Being raised by parents working in nightclubs and the free-rave scene in Japan has shaped my focus on portraying communities existing outside the dominant social structure. I often collaborate with non-professional actors, local residents and people from my immediate surroundings. This unscripted, grassroots experience made me want to create cinema depicting lives that unfold outside of conventional society.

My work have been shown and screened in museums and film festivals worldwide, including International Film Festival Rotterdam, CPH:DOC, The Centre Pompidou, ICA London, BFI Southbank, South London Gallery, The National Museum of Art Osaka, Fukuoka Art Museum and Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. I am selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2019, Awarded GQ Global Creativity Awards 2024, and Locarno Filmmakers academy . Also directed work broadcasts on the BBC4 and Amazon Prime Original. In 2026, a new video work was commissioned by Gasworks, and I had my first institutional solo exhibition in Europe.

Education
2024 MA Artist’s Film & Moving Image, Goldsmiths University of London, UK
2018 BA Fine Arts (Inter Media Art), Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan

Public Collection
The National Museum of Art Osaka, Fukuoka Art Museum

Education
2024 MA Artist’s Film & Moving Image, Goldsmiths University of London, UK
2018 BA Fine Arts (Inter Media Art), Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan

Solo Exhibition
2026 Nocturnal Melody, esea contemporary, Manchester
2026 Nocturnal Melody, Gasworks, London
2024 Thundergod, Gallery Butaiura, Tokyo
2021 Gravity and Radiance, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo
2017 Mire of Dickhead Demon, TAV Gallery, Tokyo

Selected Group Exhibition
2027 Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo
2026 Busan biennale, Busan
2025 Visions in the Nunnery, Nunnery Gallery, London
2025 Remote Sensing, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne
2024 Struggle, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka
2023 Home Sweet Home, The National Museum of Art, Osaka
2023 Fukuoka Art Award, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka
2023 Here comes everybody, Akita City Cultural Creation Center
2022 Coming of Age, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
2022 National Museum of Women in the Arts Japan, YAU, Tokyo
2021 Digitalis or First-Person Camera, Takuro Someya Contemporary Art, Tokyo
2022 Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo
2019 Bloomberg New Contemporaries, South London Gallery, London
2019 Women’s Imaging Rooms: About the Diary of Lady Sarashina, Ichihara Lakeside Museum, Chiba

Selected Screenings
2024 The Pioneer, Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, Lisbon
2022 Gravity and Radiance, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo
2020 Janitor of Lunacy, ICA London, London
2019 Janitor of Lunacy, BFI Southbank, London
2019 The Garden Apartment / The Pioneer, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam
2018 Pains of Forever, The Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
2018 Pains of Forever, CPH:DOX, Copenhagen
2014 Desktop Treasure, Hors Pistes São Paulo, Museum of Image and Sound, São Paulo
2014 Desktop Treasure, Hors Pistes Tokyo Official Selection, Centre Pompidou, Paris

Public Collection
2024 The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
2023 Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan

Selected Awards and Grants
2025 Matsuura foundation
2025 Kumagai Art foundation
2025 The Yoshino Gypsum Art Foundation Financial Support for International Artistic Exchange
2024 GQ Global Creativity Awards 2024
2024 The Pola Art Foundation Grants for Overseas Study
2023 Fukuoka Art Award
2022 Art News Japan, 30 Artists U35
2021 Shiseido Art egg 2021
2019 Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2019
2018 Ezoe Memorial Recruit Foundation Scholarship Student
2018 KUMA Foundation Scholarship Student
2016 Contemporary Art Foundation Teiya Iwabuchi Awar