Marin Murakoshi

Marin Murakoshi is a largely self-taught sculptor hailing from one of the oldest small villages of Ishigaki Island, Okinawa, Japan. She is working locally and internationally across the sculpture and public art fields, especially focusing on contributing to the realization of an inclusive society. Before moving to Boston in 2016, she lived in Osaka, New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

Over the past 10 years, she has put effort into participating in the International Sculpture Symposium and several public art projects and expanded her understanding of the importance of person-to-person basis interaction beyond various backgrounds of people.

In her practice, physicality and public space are very important elements. She prefers working with her own hands with minimal use of power machines. She focuses on direct carving of wood and stone and exploring more the use of various recycled materials combined with traditional carving and other handcraft techniques. She creates figurative and semi-abstract forms and often lets the material take its own shape following the vision which she receives through the working process.

Her work explores nuances and elements of emotion and fleeting moments in life with a touch of whimsy and playful humor in an eclectic way, often inspired by poetry, Eastern philosophy, world myths, and folklore. Her work centers on creating space for reflection and calming and mending our soul.

As an 1st generation immigrant, parent-artist, based in Concord, MA, while figuring out how to navigate day-to-day operation in U.S, her works seek how we could take back the sense of wholeness, expand our empathy to others, and bring balance and harmony between all living things, beyond human beings.