TAKADA Mal

Profile

Born in Kanagawa (Japan) in 1987. Lives and works in Osaka.
Graduated in 2009 from Japan Women’s University with a major in Religious Studies (Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Letters). Completed multiple courses at Bigakko between 2012 and 2015. Received an MFA in Oil Painting from Kyoto City University of Arts in 2024.

Recent exhibitions
2026 “New Mutation #6 Where the Tremor Goes” Kyoto Art Center
2025 “When diaries become letters What's born is you The giant you never knew is a friend” VOU, Kyoto
2024 “Window Gallery in Marunouchi ― from AATM vol.2” Gyoko-dori Underground Gallery, Tokyo
2024 “Art Rhizome KYOTO 2024 ― Kyoto Wander: A Transient Journey to the Everlasting” Kyoto City Hall Annex
2024 “This flower, dahlia, Dahlia, DAHLIA” NADiff Window Gallery, Tokyo

Awards
2024　"Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2024" Grand Prix
2015　"The 13th Graphic 1WALL" Jury Encouragement Award (Selected by Koichi Sato)

About works

In exploring the primal impulses and desires that drive humans toward painting, I approach ‘painting’ not as a physical or material form, but as an event that unfolds between people. Through practice, I consider what happens within deeply personal acts of depiction and description, and within their transmission and misreading in public settings. While the discourse surrounding ‘painting’ continually shifts, the act of painting itself remains endlessly and profoundly private. Precisely because it is private, it possesses both fragility and strength. I continue to engage with paintings that are born—and broken—through encounters with others.