Play therapy with Umico Niwa

Continuing from past workshops—during which participants created figural portraits, also from used fruit and vegetal matter—this project invites participants to project and imagine alternate configurations of identity. Niwa writes, “It’s a light-hearted way we can trek the infinite variations of ourselves, and the things we embody but do not witness.” The fruits of this communal exercise will then be on display in the gallery, alongside Niwa’s own copper-casted baby shoes.

All ages are welcome. Participants are encouraged to bring produce, flowers, seeds, or branches that would otherwise go to waste. Additional materials will be provided.

Umico Niwa (b. 1991, Japan) received her MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from the Virginia Commonwealth University,
Richmond, in 2020. Niwa’s practice explores the way Western notions of personhood subsume
human life into constructs of sexuality and gender, overlooking the various other modes of unbridled existence: plant, microbial.
fungal, animal, celestial bodies. Her speculative medical papers propose novel forms of body modification to combat gender
dysphoria as well as playfully explore the possible efficacy of including fecal matter transplants as part of hormone replacement
therapy for transgender individuals.

Niwa’s solo show, Fruiting Bodies, is currently on display at the American Institute of Thoughts and Feelings in
Tucson, Arizona. She has also recently been invited to lead a workshop, together with her partner, “Meet Your Gremlin, Make Your
Gremlin” at Recess Gallery in Brooklyn, New York City.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Miriam Gallery, 319 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, United States