Yuki Kihara

b. 1975, Sāmoa
Lives and works in Sāmoa

Yuki Kihara is an interdisciplinary artist of Japanese and Sāmoan descent working and living in Sāmoa. Her research-driven art practice challenges dominant historical narratives and their socio-political persistence in contemporary culture, often exploring the intersectionality between identity politics, decolonisation and ecology. Kihara incorporates Sāmoan aesthetics and cultural codes through performance, collage, photography, film and curation, redirecting viewers to the concerns of contemporary Pacific Islanders.

Kihara’s projects are often rooted in Pacific communities that are co-created locally but designed to circulate, speak to, and influence local and international audiences, institutions, and discourses – without losing accountability to the community that shaped them. Kihara's practice is widely considered to be at the forefront of contemporary Pacific art and cultural theory today.

International recognition followed Kihara’s solo exhibition Living Photographs (2008) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Presented in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, the exhibition highlighted her interdisciplinary practice and resulted in the acquisition of works for the museum’s permanent collection.

Kihara’s works have been exhibited extensively both locally and internationally, with works presented at the Gwangju Biennale (2023); Aichi Triennale (2022); Bangkok Art Biennale (2018); Honolulu Biennale (2017); Asia Pacific Triennial (2015 and 2002) and Sakahàn Quinquennial (2013). She has been the subject of solo exhibition worldwide, including Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Powerhouse Museum; Sainsbury Centre; and the Pātaka Museum. 

In 2022, Kihara became the first Pasifika artist to represent Aotearoa New Zealand at the 59th Venice Biennale with her solo exhibition Paradise Camp, curated by Natalie King. The project garnered significant international attention and has subsequently toured to a number of institutions.  

Her work is held in over 30 permanent collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek; Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan; British Museum; The National Museum of World Cultures, The Netherlands; Sunpride Foundation, Hong Kong; National Museum of Scotland; Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art; National Gallery of Australia and Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand.