MIKA NAKAMURA-MATHER
Born in Japan, lives and works in Australia.
Nakamura-Mather holds a Doctor of Visual Arts from Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, building on a First-Class Honours degree completed in 2012. Her practice has been widely recognised, with selection as a finalist in major awards including the Libris Award, Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Deakin University Small Sculpture Award, Clayton Utz Art Award, and Du Rietz Art Awards.
Nakamura-Mather has presented solo exhibitions across Australia and Japan including Artspace Mackay, Choyodo Gallery (Haramachi, Japan) and Youkobo Art Space (Tokyo) and has participated in significant curated exhibitions and biennales such as the Nakanojo International Art Biennale (Japan), Anima Mundi (Venice), and the Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Award (HOTA).
2015 - 2026
Japanese indigenous timber, photographic transfer sheets, natural Japanese pigments, scratched figures.
Upcoming Exhibtion
Mika Nakamura-Mather: Ichigo Ichie
February 5 to February 21, 2026
PARKER Contemporary brings together works by Japanese-born, Australian-based artist Mika Nakamura-Mather that reflect on the concept of ichigo ichie, a phrase urging us to cherish each moment in which memories, places, and chance meetings are carried across time. Through layering and surface abrasion, the artist builds and then scratches back into what has been made, allowing absence to register as clearly as presence.
Wood is central throughout, both as a printing substrate and as a cultural reference to Japanese traditions of carving, inscription, and record keeping. Across these works, landscapes and environments act as quiet witnesses to change, marking shifts in season and location, while relationships and remembered figures fade, return, and transform. The result is a tender meditation on home and belonging as something continually remade.
2015 - 2026
Japanese indigenous timber, photographic transfer sheets, natural Japanese pigments, scratched figures.