Kuniko Maeda

Kuniko Maeda is a Japanese multidisciplinary artist based in London.  

Maeda has always had a strong interest and admiration for Japanese craftsmanship - it has fascinated her since she was a child. After studying Japanese traditional wood carving in Kyoto for two years, she moved to London to study textile designs at Chelsea College of Arts, exploring its cultural diversity and values and forging a new creative path. 

Kuniko Maeda's practice is rooted in material processes, with a strong influence in design aesthetics informed by her subject specialism, sustainability. She mainly works with paper, partly because of its many common uses, easy availability, recyclability and its therefore unappreciated nature. 

Maeda focuses on the idea of life cycles in Japanese culture and religion with further influences from western models of explorations of materiality which she incorporates with craft techniques and digital technology.  

By exploring the possibility of materials and their unique properties, Maeda allows the materials to speak and embrace natural formed abstraction.