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Patricia Piccinini + Nimyu "Me and You"
Akiinoue
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Artists
Patricia Piccinini, Nimyu
Akiinoue is pleased to present Me and You, a two-person exhibition by Patricia Piccinini and Nimyu.
Patricia Piccinini was born in Sierra Leone, West Africa, before moving to Australia, where she continues to live and work. After studying economic history at the Australian National University, she majored in painting at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne. In 2016, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Visual and Performing Arts from the same university, where she served as a Professor from 2017 to 2023. She is currently a Professor of Practice at RMIT University.
Piccinini represented Australia at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, and in 2013 unveiled Skywhale, a public commission commemorating the city of Canberra’s centenary. In 2018, the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art held Curious Affection, a major retrospective of her work. She has since exhibited widely in solo museums and group exhibitions internationally.
Working with materials such as silicone, resin and hair, Piccinini creates three-dimensional works depicting hybrid beings in which the boundaries between animal and human, nature and artificiality, are blurred. Rooted in the contexts of science, technology, and environmental discourse, her work revolves around themes such as empathy and otherness, prompting reflection on the conditions of life and the possibilities of connection.
Nimyu is a Chinese-born artist based in Tokyo. She graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, before obtaining her MFA from the New York Academy of Art.
Her first solo exhibition was held in New York in 2012, and her work has since been exhibited across Japan, China, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and beyond.
The surreal figures, animals, foods, and phenomena in Nimyu’s paintings evoke a sense of back-and-forth between the mundane reality and the strange realms of imagination. Her work engages with human nature, the complex relationships between the individual and the collective, truth and fiction, as well as contemplation on the often-accidental processes through which our identities are formed.
Themes such as life and death, reality and fiction, nature and artificiality, animal and human, self and other—together with the boundaries assumed to exist between them—are central to both Piccinini’s and Nimyu’s works.
In both practices, the relationships between multiple beings are depicted as never complete in isolation, and the narratives that emerge generate a resonant dialogue with the viewer. In their practices, both artists draw on relationships between multiple beings, beyond the idea of the individual as being complete on their own, which in turn create a quiet dialogue with the viewer.
The exhibition Me and You will center around distinct works by the two artists. Piccinini’s The Coup is one of her signature works exploring the relationship between the artificial and the natural, a subject she has pursued for many years. Nimyu’s installation of paintings features her new large-scale painting The Shared Frame, which reveals the tension and absurdity lurking beneath the surface of our everyday assumptions.
The humans and animals that inhabit the worlds of these two artists—working across dissimilar media—possess a gaze through which the viewer is prompted to reflect on how our emotions and consciousness are shaped by our relationships with others and with the environment.
Patricia Piccinini will visit Japan from Australia for the exhibition, and an opening reception with both artists will be held on Saturday, August 30, from 5-7pm. On Sunday, August 31, a talk event will take place featuring both artists in conversation, moderated by Kana Miyazawa, Assistant Curator at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.
[Related Events]
Gallery Talk
Date: August 31 (Sun) 15:00 - 16:00
Patricia Piccinini was born in Sierra Leone, West Africa, before moving to Australia, where she continues to live and work. After studying economic history at the Australian National University, she majored in painting at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne. In 2016, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Visual and Performing Arts from the same university, where she served as a Professor from 2017 to 2023. She is currently a Professor of Practice at RMIT University.
Piccinini represented Australia at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, and in 2013 unveiled Skywhale, a public commission commemorating the city of Canberra’s centenary. In 2018, the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art held Curious Affection, a major retrospective of her work. She has since exhibited widely in solo museums and group exhibitions internationally.
Working with materials such as silicone, resin and hair, Piccinini creates three-dimensional works depicting hybrid beings in which the boundaries between animal and human, nature and artificiality, are blurred. Rooted in the contexts of science, technology, and environmental discourse, her work revolves around themes such as empathy and otherness, prompting reflection on the conditions of life and the possibilities of connection.
Nimyu is a Chinese-born artist based in Tokyo. She graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, before obtaining her MFA from the New York Academy of Art.
Her first solo exhibition was held in New York in 2012, and her work has since been exhibited across Japan, China, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and beyond.
The surreal figures, animals, foods, and phenomena in Nimyu’s paintings evoke a sense of back-and-forth between the mundane reality and the strange realms of imagination. Her work engages with human nature, the complex relationships between the individual and the collective, truth and fiction, as well as contemplation on the often-accidental processes through which our identities are formed.
Themes such as life and death, reality and fiction, nature and artificiality, animal and human, self and other—together with the boundaries assumed to exist between them—are central to both Piccinini’s and Nimyu’s works.
In both practices, the relationships between multiple beings are depicted as never complete in isolation, and the narratives that emerge generate a resonant dialogue with the viewer. In their practices, both artists draw on relationships between multiple beings, beyond the idea of the individual as being complete on their own, which in turn create a quiet dialogue with the viewer.
The exhibition Me and You will center around distinct works by the two artists. Piccinini’s The Coup is one of her signature works exploring the relationship between the artificial and the natural, a subject she has pursued for many years. Nimyu’s installation of paintings features her new large-scale painting The Shared Frame, which reveals the tension and absurdity lurking beneath the surface of our everyday assumptions.
The humans and animals that inhabit the worlds of these two artists—working across dissimilar media—possess a gaze through which the viewer is prompted to reflect on how our emotions and consciousness are shaped by our relationships with others and with the environment.
Patricia Piccinini will visit Japan from Australia for the exhibition, and an opening reception with both artists will be held on Saturday, August 30, from 5-7pm. On Sunday, August 31, a talk event will take place featuring both artists in conversation, moderated by Kana Miyazawa, Assistant Curator at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.
[Related Events]
Gallery Talk
Date: August 31 (Sun) 15:00 - 16:00
Schedule | Aug 30 (Sat) 2025-Sep 27 (Sat) 2025 Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception Aug 30 (Sat) 2025 17:00 - 19:00 | ||||
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Website | https://akiinoue.com/en/exhibitions/nimyu-piccinini-me-and-you/ | ||||
| Venue | Akiinoue https://akiinoue.com/en | ||||
| Location | 2F The Rows, 2-3 Daikanyamacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0034 | ||||
| Access | 8 minute walk from the North exit of Daikanyama Station on the Tokyu Toyoko line, 10 minute walk from the New South exit of JR Shibuya Station. | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it  |
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