ABOUT

Marina Kawabe (b. 2004) is a multidisciplinary artist practicing on Gadigal and Bediagal land.

Kawabe’s work is heavily informed by her heritage, dissecting Japanese imperial history and contemporary Orientalism through her ceramic works and paintings.

A woman with shoulder-length red hair smiling and wearing an off-the-shoulder white top with orange fish pattern.

Marina Kawabe’s work is concerned with the Japanese postwar aesthetic, and its subsequent effect on the country’s internal and external cultural image. Through the creation of her works, Kawabe nurtures the exploited female figure often depicted in Japanese popular culture; a process that is facilitated by the clay medium. Kawabe’s handbuilt ceramic sculptures stylistically engage with the anime style, translating flat cartoon imagery into three-dimensional forms. In appropriating the kitschy “Kawaii” aesthetic, Kawabe uses humour to commemorate the grief of living as a Japanese woman in a world of fetishisation and cyber-Orientalism.

Graduating from National Art School in 2024, Marina Kawabe was awarded the Gallery Lane Cove Residency and Exhibition Prize. She has since exhibited her works at CBD Gallery, Gallery Lane Cove, and Hurstville Gallery. As of 2026, Marina has begun working as a studio assistant for Mechelle Bounpraseuth.

CV

  • 2026 “Sack o’ Bones”, Machine Hall, Sydney

    ‍ ‍. “Bedtime Stories”, Hurstville Gallery, Sydney

    2025   “New Voices”, CBD Gallery, Sydney

        “Unsupervised // Premonitions”, Sydney

       “Self Care Ritual”, Factory 2/4, Sydney

    2024   “NAS Grad Show”, National Art School, Sydney

          “Impulse” NAS Library Stairwell, Sydney

               “Bedroom Fantasies” TAP Gallery, Sydney

    2023   “Oniera Single Launch” Goodspace Gallery, Sydney

    2022   “ZOOMERS” Hazelhurst Art Gallery, Sydney

    2019   “Make Your Mark” St George Art Society, Sydney 

    2018   Sydney Royal Easter Show, Sydney 

    2017   Sydney Royal Easter Show, Sydney

  • 2026 Studio Assistant for Mechelle Bounpraseuth

    2019 - 2021 Youth Ambassador at Hazelhurst Art Centre

  • Bachelor of Fine Arts, National Art School, 2024

    High School Certificate, St George Girls High School, 2021

  • 2024 Gallery Lane Cove Exhibition and Residency Award, National Art School

    2019 Outstanding Young Artist Award, St George Art Society 

  • Irresistible Magazine (6 December 2024) The National Art School’s 2024 Graduate Show 

    Bineeta Saha (7 October 2024) Exhibition reflection, University of Sydney Art History Journal

    Eva Kolimar (31 March 2022) Generation Z on display for Zoomers at Hazelhurst Gallery, The Leader