Maya Fuji

Maya Fuji interweaves Japanese myth and folklore with contemporary iconography to explore ideas of identity and space, history and heritage. Fuji populates remembered Japanese interiors with ancestors, playful deities and spirits, imagining them all coexisting in the modern day. The work celebrates traditional Japanese craftsmanship and spiritual tradition while simultaneously embracing a playful, modern sensibility. The women in Fuji’s paintings represent shinto gods called “Sorei” – gods formed by an aggregate of ancestral spirits. Every family has their own Sorei, who are protectors of the home and future generations. The artist imagines the figures in her paintings embodying all the women who have inhabited the home she grew up in, beginning with herself and reaching back through the generations. Formally, the figures embody two powerful aesthetic influencesfrom the artist’s childhood: Nihonga painting – a traditional style often found in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines – and manga illustration. Plush bodies and elegant, expressive hands hail from Ukiyo-e painting of the Edo period, while the simplified faces and large, sparkling eyes have roots in manga. By embracing these two deeply Japanese styles, Fuji reclaims an aesthetic heritage that she felt carried negative stereotypes in the US. Smaller, often half-glimpsed female figures also cavort across Fuji’s compositions. These miniature women are colorless, with long black hair, and can be found rummaging in drawers, hanging off fan blades, peeking around corners, and tumbling across floors. These are manifestations of the artist’s interest in Tsukumogami, household objects that obtain a spirit or soul over a century, as well as Yaoyorozu No Kami, which arise from the Shinto belief that gods reside in everything in this world. Both manifest as trickster deities who both help and harm, and here Fuji imagines that these spirits have emigrated with the family into the new world. Borrowing a playful sense of perspective from Edo-period prints, Maya's interiors press against the picture plane while also inviting the viewer to imagine the action just out of sight, reflecting Fuji’s desire to salvage pieces of old Japan by inviting them into the present and creating a hybrid world of her own.

Maya Fuji (b. 1988 Kanazawa, Japan) is a self taught artist who shifted careers midway through her MBA program to pursue her passion in visual arts and painting. Fuji immigrated to Berkeley, CA at an early age, and spent her early years spending time back and forth between Kanazawa and Berkeley. She currently lives and works out of San Francisco.

Fuji has had solo exhibitions at Charlie James Gallery (2025), SWIM Gallery, SF (2022) and YOD Gallery, Osaka (2023). Recent group exhibitions include New Image Art, LA (2022), Glass Rice, SF (2022, 2023), Hashimoto Contemporary, SF & LA (2023), Residency Art, LA (2023), Good Mother Gallery, Oakland & LA (2021-2023), The Hole, NY (2023), and Root Division, SF (2023). Fuji’s work has been featured in publications such as New American Paintings, Friend Of The Artist, Artmaze Mag, Metal Magazine, It’s Nice That, and Immigrantly Podcast. She was the winner of the Innovative Grant, was a finalist for the Foundwork Artist Prize, was nominated for the SF MOMA SECA Award in 2023. She was the recipient of the SFAC Artists Grant and was an artist in residence at the Wassaic Projects in 2024.