Photography/artbook [FAUSTUS] published by Sokyu-sha
Author: Misako Oba
Misako Oba was born and raised in Japan. She lived in New York City for over few years and this event in the book happened in New York without her family who lives in Japan. She currently travels often.
Oba’s artworks have been exhibited internationally such as in France, Belgium, Germany, Japan and the U.S., including AIPAD Shows in New York, Photo l.a. in California, and Salon d’Automne in Paris. Her works are in private and corporate collections as well as in public collections such as in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris as a part of their national permanent collection. Also, this artbook FAUSTUS became a part of the library collection at notable museum Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris among others. Magazines and newspapers in Japan and U.S. have interviewed her and published articles about her life and artwork.
Received several awards including some first prizes in international photography competitions. Prior to the book publication, one of her self-portraits “They Might Amputate My Pinkie #3” from the FAUSTUS series received the First Prize in The Pollux Awards, The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards. In 2017, she was awarded to the prominent Artist-in-Residency by Brush Creek Foundation of Arts and invited to spend the summer at their studio and created the series of encaustic mixed-media work. Her encaustic work is included in the book, “Encaustic Revelation,” published by North Light Book in the U.S.
Oba’s work explores human life as a journey and is a metaphor for our lives. It is both a deep examination of her soul and an exploration of universal experiences. It also depicts the beauty of life with its transient nature.
She studied photography and other media in a graduate program and in art schools/studios in the U.S., and did additional studies in France and Japan. Although she has spent much of her career using photography including traditional gelatin silver prints and toning, as she continues pursuing art, she has expanded her practice to mixed media painting since 2008, especially, incorporating encaustic, text, printmaking, and sometimes photo images (pigment/ink transfer) that based on the individual concept of each series.
Oba enjoys interaction with audiences in book signing events, presenting an artist talk and Q&A session, and also has given lectures to the MFA students, professors, and general public at universities such as State University in New York as well as at other places in Seattle, South Korea, and Japan. (For general inquiry)(Inquiry about a talk/books )
Her early career was in broadcasting, as a newscaster on Japanese television in NYC and in Japan. After that, she worked as a photographer/writer for Japanese magazines. Her responsibility involved film/photo direction and editing that first gave her an appreciation of the power of visual imagery. This experience became the basis of her visual arts career.
In 2011, two photography books “PACTUM” and “The Gift of Loss” were published and are available as well as the original artworks. Related to those series, in November 2014, her monograph (fine art photography and a story in English/Japanese text) “FAUSTUS” was published by Sokyu-sha (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/蒼穹舎) in Japan.
website:
www.misakooba.com
Instagram: New! 2020
@misakoobaart
on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/MisakoArt
blog [Behind the Scene]:
https://misakooba.wordpress.com/
[FAUSTUS] by Misako OBA 