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Biography: 

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Emi Kusano is a multidisciplinary artist born in Tokyo in 1990. Her practice integrates emerging technologies, including AI, to explore nostalgia, pop culture, and collective memory. Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including M+ Museum (Hong Kong), Saatchi Gallery (London), Grand Palais Immersif (Paris), Museum Francisco Carolinum (Linz), and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. She participated in a Gucci-Christie’s auction in 2023 and a charity auction by Christie’s and UNHCR in 2024. In 2025, she was recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.​

 

Kusano began her artistic career as a teenage street photographer, documenting Harajuku's fashion culture, which led to an exhibition at Victoria and Albert Museum. Her experiences in photography and fashion informed her creative vision, exploring how mass media shapes individual and collective identities.

 

Beyond visual art, she is the founder and lead singer of Satellite Young, a music group reinterpreting 1980s J-POP through a contemporary sci-fi lens, performing internationally at events including SXSW.​

 

By integrating AI and digital technologies into her creative process, Kusano positions technology as a collaborative partner rather than a defining element. Her works invite audiences to reconsider contemporary society through dialogues between past and present, expressed within a retro-futuristic aesthetic.

 

Artist Statement:

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Born in 1990 as a member of the digital-native generation, I experienced the transition from an era dominated by mass media (1950s to early 2000s) to a globally connected internet culture, developing a lasting fascination with the former. By examining the allure and dissonance of this period, I critique rapidly evolving technologies in the modern day through the lens of retro-futurism. This theme has been a consistent focus in my multidisciplinary practice, actively incorporating diverse media such as fashion, music (including my work with the music group Satellite Young), and installations, even before integrating AI technology.

I primarily create photographs, video art, and installations by organically integrating generative AI into my artistic process. By merging algorithmic uncertainty with my artistic vision, I question the role of the artist in the AI era. I regard AI as one of many creative partners in exploring the significance and vulnerability of being human.

In contrast to the "abstraction of reality" techniques employed in Japanese anime and manga, my work infuses abstract memories with a visceral realism through the natural use of AI, blurring the line between recollection and tangible experience. My inaugural AI art series, Neural Fad, portrays Japan’s unique street culture based on powerful language models biased towards Western culture. Another project, Melancholic Magical Maiden, explores gender perspectives found in 1990s magical girl and robot anime, critically addressing themes of post-war guilt and patriarchy in Japan.

Many of my pieces incorporate self-portraits generated by AI trained on my own facial data, allowing me to investigate how information technology influences identity formation.

In our current AI era, the boundary between truth and fiction is becoming exponentially ambiguous, with an overwhelming flood of information beyond our cognitive capacity. While this may seem to point to a dystopian future, there are more pressing matters for discussion. We may be the last generation capable of collectively experiencing such intense nostalgia. Using my art as a common language for discourse, I encourage a reevaluation of the present time.

【Project】

• Co-founder of Web3 Anime Project Shinsei Galverse

• Lead Singer and Music Composer, Synth-wave Music Unit Satellite Young

【Positon】

• Part-time Lecturer, Tokyo University of the Arts (2019~ Present)

• CEO / Co-Founder, Fictionera Co., Ltd. (2021~ Present)

【Education】

• 2015・Keio University BA -  Design 

【Selected Exhibitions】

• 2025-05:Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival   (M+ Museum, Hong Kong)

• 2025-05:New Dimensions: Expanded Consciousness  (Mikke Gallery Tokyo, Japan)

• 2025-03:Office Ladies  (ArtVerse, Paris, France)

• 2025-03:RIVALS - Photography vs. Promptography  (Galerie Guelman und Unbekannt, Berlin, Germany)

• ​2025-01:The Second-Guess  (House of Electronic Arts, Basel, Switzerland)

• 2024-12: Ai: The Expo (Discovery Museum, Kerkrade, Netherlands)

• 2024-12: Untitled Art (Miami Beach, The United States)

• 2024-11: TOKYO ART BOOK FAIR (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan)

• 2024-11: 17–24 NOVEMBER 2024 | AI BIENNALE, ESSEN REIMAGINE TOMORROW, 1954–2024 (Stiftung Zollverein und Digital Campus Zollverein, Essen Germany)

• 2024-11: 19th Digital Art Festival Taipei (Art Space IV, Future Square Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab, Taipei, Taiwan)

• 2024-10: Artificial Dreams (MEET Digital Culture Centre, Milan, Italy)

• 2024-09: Art of Punk (Museum Francisco Carolinum, Austria)

• 2024-09: Kiaf SEOUL (Coex Exhibition Centre, Seoul, Korea)

• 2024-03: Artificial Dreams (Grand Palais Immersif, Paris)

• 2024-03: Now in Digital Art: Game Room (Akbank Sanat, Istanbul)

• 2023-12. Neural Fad:  AI dreams Nostalgia,   “NIPPON   TV IMAGINARIUM AWARD 2023” award jury presentation, organized by NIPPON TV, (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)

• 2023-12. The Gateway Miami - Art Basel Miami (Ferena Forum)

• 2023-10: "DXP (Digital Transformation Planet): Towards the Next Interface" (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa)

• 2023-10: Long Live London (Saatchi Gallery)

• 2023-09: "E-Motions" (UNIT London)

• 2023-07: "Christie's 3.0 presents Future Frequencies: Explorations in Generative Art and Fashion in collaboration with Gucci" (Rockefeller Center)

• 2023-06: "Non Fungible Conference" (Carlos Lopes Pavilion)

• 2023-05: "Bright Moments Tokyo" (Shibuya Parco)

• 2020-08: "Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk" (Victoria and Albert Museum)

• 2019-11: "SIGGRAPH ASIA Art Gallery" (Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre)

• 2018-03: "Art Hack Day" (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation)

• 2011-04: "Japan Fashion Now" (Fashion Institute of Technology, New York)

* For information on all exhibitions and event appearances, please click here​

【Award】​

• Aethetica Art Award Long list (2025)

• World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders 2025 (2025)

• Sora Selct Feature Film (2025)

• Excellence Award "Currents Art Award" (2025) 

• ​Lumen Prize Finalist (2024)

• Winning Prize "Meta Morph Award"  AI Video (2024)

• Winning Prize "SIGGRAPH Asia Asia Art Gallery " (2019)

• Jury Award "Art Hack Day" (2018)