About

Shino Yanai, a performance artist and researcher born in Japan, lives and works between London and Tokyo. Her performance-based artwork intertwines images, DIY technology and sound to explore hidden traces of history and memories. Prior to her journey into contemporary art, Yanai trained as a classical pianist, a discipline that has shaped and continues to inform her exploration of sound. She is currently a practice-led doctoral researcher at UCL, Slade School of Fine Art. Her doctoral research investigates how noise and improvised music can communicate trauma, drawing on the layered histories of the Korean diaspora and her own familial roots, and the cultural impact of imperialism. Her improvised performance weaves in field recordings gathered during a long-distance run she embarked upon in the quiet of the COVID pandemic in 2020. Her practice seeks to reanimate the past through memories, bringing the viewers into a new relationship with historical events.

Selected Exhibitions and Performance
28 February 2026 performance by Shino Yanai and Ken Ikeda, OTOOTO, Tokyo

18 January 2025 performance by Ken Ikeda with Shino Yanai, Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall, London

7 December 2024 performance by Ken Ikeda with Shino Yanai, Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall, London

15 November 2024 - 18 January 2025 Artist residency and exhibition Memories float for a moment and then fall, Shino Yanai with Ken Ikeda, Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall, London

2024 TOKAS OPEN SITE 8 I Hear Your Breath a performance by Shino Yanai, Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS), Tokyo

2023 Collaborative performance by Shino Yanai and Syo Yoshihama, OTOOTO, Tokyo

2022 Solo exhibition and performance I Hear Your Breath in 4/4 Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix, London

2021 Solo site-specific installation work Well Temperament for the Tokyo Biennale 2020/2021 ‘Praying for Tokyo’ curated by Kazuko Koike (the Tokyo Biennale 2020/2021, President of Sagacho Archive, a founder of Muji), artists; Rei Naito, Aiko Miyanaga, Shino Yanai, at Yushima Seido (The Mausoleum of Confucius at Yushima), Tokyo

2021 Performance by Shino Yanai and Ken Ikeda at Yushima Seido, Tokyo, as part of Shino Yanai’s exhibition Well Temperament for the Tokyo Biennale 2020/2021 'Praying for Tokyo'

2021 Commissioned online exhibition ‘11 Stories on Distanced Relationships: Contemporary Art from Japan’ Japan Foundation

2021 Group exhibition ‘Flowers of Romance’ White Conduit Projects, London
2020 Commissioned solo exhibition Unwanted Sound curated by Haruka Iharada, part of the project ‘Art in Covid-19’, Goethe-Institut Tokyo

2020 Commissioned group exhibition ‘de-sport: The Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Sports through Art’ 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, artists; Allora & Calzadilla, The Eugene Studio, Charles Freger, Liam Gillick, Christian Jankowski, Gabriel Orozco, Erwin Wurm, Xijing Men, Shino Yanai

2020 Group exhibition ‘Cherry Blossom Party’ eitoeiko, Tokyo

2020 Commissioned group exhibition ‘Exposing the Bushes’ curated by Haruka Iharada, artists; Kaori Endo, Kaya Hanasaki, Shino Yanai, Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS), Tokyo

2019 ‘erroribus humanis et antinomy’: screening of Blue Passages, The Deep End, talk with Tetuzi Akiyama and Chihei Hatakeyama; OTOOTO (Tokyo)
2019 ‘Perspectives (2)’ Intermediateque, The University Museum, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo

2019 Commissioned group exhibition ‘Creation and Technique’ Pola Museum Annex, Toyko

2019 ‘3331 Art Fair 2019’: selected by Dr. Yoshitaka Mouri (Sociologist, Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts); 3331 Arts Chiyoda - Main Gallery, Toyko

2019 Commissioned solo exhibition The Deep End Sagacho Archives, Tokyo

2018 ‘TBCTV’: screening of Happy and Glorious, Somerset House - Lancaster Room, London

2018 “The Sky has No Surface” 10a Bridge Street Car park (Berwick-Upon-Tweed)

2018 Screening Happy and Glorious in ‘Phantom Limb: AMZ, k28, Ila Brugal, Flemish Bond, Fourth Floor Room + video screenings’ curated by Kathy Cho and Katie Yook, Corsica Studio, London

2018 Group exhibition ‘A Point of No Return | Anthropocene Entity’ White Conduit Projects, London

2017 Mediarc International Festival of Architecture ‘Proiezioni sezione Festival Internazionale NowYouSeeMe! Parigi 2017' Le Murate Progetti Arte Contemporanea, Florence

2017 Collaborative performance Happening and Surveillance; Cut Piece by Shino Yanai and Jukan Tateisi; Photography Project Space, Royal College of Art, London
2017 Offprint London, Art Publishing Fair Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London

2017 International Public Art Short Film Contest nominated, Journées internationales du film sur l'art, 10e édition; ‘Art Public – Now you see me’ Louvre museum - Auditrium, Paris

2016 Commissioned solo exhibition Blue Passages, White Conduit Projects, London

2016 commissioned performance The Blue Passages, Passages - Hommage to Walter Benjamin (Dani Karavan), Portbou

2014 Duo exhibition ‘Comedy and Menace: Birthday Party’: Andro Semeiko & Shino Yanai; White Conduit Projects, London

2014 Group exhibition ‘Anti – War: Resistance against the Anticipated War’ SNOW Contemporary, Tokyo
2014 commissioned group exhibition ‘ego – Re-examining the Self –’ punto, Kyoto

2014 ‘Utsushi-mi – Ghost Self’: performance and solo exhibition curated by Haruka Iharada, monsHirop; PARADISE STUDIO, Facility of Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo

2013 Commissioned group exhibition ‘Brave New World – re-enchanting utopia’ artists; Christian Boltanski, Sachiko Kodama, teamLab, Shino Yanai; Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori

2013 Commissioned group exhibition ‘WHAT WE SEE’ artists; Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Cyprien Gaillard, Johan Grimonprez, Hiraki Sawa, Chia-En Jao, Sojung Jun, Pei-Shih Tu, Steve McQueen, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Shino Yanai; The National Museum of Art, Osaka

2012 Group exhibition ‘End of war in the decade of the 2010s’ eitoeiko, Tokyo

2012 ‘Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2012’ Marunouchi-building, Tokyo
2012 Degree Show (Tokyo National University of the Arts) ‘GEIDAI SENTAN 2012’ BankART Studio NYK, Yokohama

2010 Commissioned group exhibition ‘TAMAVIVANⅡ 2010’ Daikanyama Sedona, Tokyo / Parthenon Tama, Tokyo / Tama Art University, Tokyo

2009 ‘NIHONGA : New Traditions’ Dillon Gallery, New York

2008 Exchange programme ‘International Art&Design Critiques’ Tsinghua University, Beijing

Education

2019–current Practice-led PhD Slade School of Fine Art, University College London
2016–18 MA (Distinction) Photography, Royal College of Art
2010–12 MA Inter Media Art, Tokyo National University of the Arts
2008–10 MA Japanese Painting, Tama Art University
2004-2008 BA Japanese Painting, Tama Art University
1998–2002 BA Music, Instrumental Music, Piano major, Kobe College

Teaching

2022–25 Postgraduate Teaching Assistant for BA UCL Drawing Methodologies Class

Awards and Grants

2020, 2022, 2023 Malcolm Hughes Research Bursary and the Jean Spencer Memorial Bursary: Slade School of Fine Art, UCL

2019, 2022 Grant from the Nomura Foundation: Doctoral Research in Slade School of Fine Art, UCL

2021 Ogasawara Toshiaki Memorial Foundation: Exhibition and performance ‘Well Temperament’ as part of the project ‘Praying for Tokyo’ in Tokyo Biennale. 2020/2021

2017–18 Fellowship of Overseas Study Programme for Upcoming Artists, Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunka-cho), Government of Japan

2016 Grant from the Nomura Foundation: Walter Benjamin Portbou Project

2014–15 Fellowship of Grant for Young Artists from the POLA Art Foundation (hosted by Tomoko Yoneda)

2018 Photography Prize (Degree Show 2018, Royal College of Art)

2017 International Public Art Short Film Contest nominated, “Art Public – Now you see me”

2012 Yuka Uematsu Prize (Curator, the National Museum of Art, Osaka), Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2012

Talks, Conferences and Workshops

7-8 March 2026 experimental workshop ‘Making music from absence’ with Hochoul Lee, BUoY, Tokyo

4 December 2024 Beaconsfield sound workshop with Ken Ikeda, Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall (London)
November - December 2024 Beaconsfield sound and drawing workshops with Walnut Tree Walk School and Roots and Shoots , Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall, London

2024 TOKAS OPEN SITE 8 I Hear Your Breath:

Artist Talk / Guest: Tomohiro Masuda (Curator, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo), Seiichi Tsuchiya (Art critic / Associate Professor, Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts), Tomoko Shimizu (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts)

2023 Practice-led symposium: ‘Dreams and Guilt Exhibiting Counter-Memories’, Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall, London

2021 Symposium, Roundtable Discussion 'Tokyo Biennale 2020 – Live Relations vol.01' Symposium, Roundtable Discussion Organised by Tokyo Biennale 2020/2021

2021 Online talk event, related to Japan Foundation’s online exhibition ‘11 Stories on Distanced Relationships – Contemporary Art’, Speakers: Stuart Tulloch, Rika Noguchi, Hiraki Sawa, Shino Yanai

2019 Conference and presentation in ‘Okinawan Art in its Regional Context’, University of East Anglia, Norwich

2019 Artist talk, related to solo exhibition The Deep End at Sagacho Archives, ‘Nationalism and Death’: conversation with Dr. Yoshitaka Mouri (Sociologist, Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts), Kazuko Koike (President of Sagacho Exhibit Space, Director of Towada Art Centre, Advisory board for Muji); Sagacho Archives, Tokyo

2018 ‘Art, Politics and Censorship in Japan and beyond’; Sainsbury institute for the study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Norwich
2018 Artist Talk, Camberwell College of Art and Design, London

2016 Artist talk in ‘Crisis youth get creative: ‘Young Generations in Japan and Europe: Crisis, Mobility and Creativity’ workshop’; Sainsbury institute for the study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Norwich

2016 Artist Talk Blue Passages: conversation with Dr Jonathan Whitewall, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, London

2014 ‘Madness Plays as Metaphor’: conversation related to solo exhibition Utsushi-mi – Ghost Self, with Seiichi Tsuchiya (Art Critic, Professor at Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts), Dr. Yoshitaka Mouri (Sociologist, Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts); monshirop – Facility of Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo

2014 ‘Art and Nation’, guest lecture hosted by Professor Seiichi Tsuchiya; Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts, Okinawa