榎真弓は広島市出身の美術家・版画家です。1980年代にプリントメイキングを学んで以来、中でもエッチング技法を主に用いながら制作をしています。
榎は日々の営みに潜む現象を「unpredictability 予測不可能性」あるいは「randomness 無作為性」という視点より捉え、偶然がもたらす素材の可能性を探りながら作品化を試みています。
また、1990年代初めから2000年代中頃にかけては、大学や専門学校においてビジュアルアーツ、プリントメイキング、グラフィックデザイン等の教育にも携わりました。
英国王立画家・版画家協会 (Associate Member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers ) 准会員(ARE) 。
Method of Working
In her Binding and String series, Mayumi Enoki draws on the traditional Japanese shiborizome dyeing technique, where string is used to create intricate patterns of corrosion on metal plates. The plates are repeatedly immersed in acid, allowing natural forces to create unpredictable marks as the metal slowly transforms through corrosion. Each plate becomes fragile, yielding only a limited number of prints, each one with slight variations that reflect the transient nature of the process. This process creates a dialogue between Enoki's artistic vision and the randomness inherent in natural processes.
Inspired by the philosophy of Japanese kintsugi pottery repair technique, Enoki incorporates metal leaf using the chine-collé technique, combining fragility with resilience and randomness with intention. The subtle contrast between the metallic leaf and the organic texture of the corroded metal symbolises a balance between strength and delicacy, creating a unique narrative within each piece.
Artist’s Statement
Enoki’s work is influenced by the Buddhist concept of “emptiness” (空, in Japanese), which embody the inherent contradictions and impermanence of life and which suggests that all phenomena are interconnected and without a fixed or independent self. This perspective shapes her creative process, subtly guiding her exploration of intention and unpredictability.
In her work, Enoki seeks to explore the hidden spaces that emerge between presence and absence, form and formlessness. The process of corrosion, central to her technique, visually captures the essence of “emptiness” – nothing remains fixed, and everything is in flux, similar to the continuous transformation experienced in life. The interaction of metal, acid and time serves as a metaphor for the way in which the uncertainty of life leaves traces that are as unique and unreproducible as each passing moment.
Through this interplay of chance and deliberate selection, Enoki captures fleeting moments that embody the invisible forces at work in both material and conceptual realities. Each print is created by random elements, and within this unpredictability she intuitively uncovers moments of beauty and order. The delicate balance between accidental and intentional forms reflects the complexity of life itself, where control and uncertainty coexist, creating spaces for contemplation on the transient nature of our experiences.
Enoki’s work invites the viewer to engage with these moments of impermanence, to consider the subtle beauty found within change and uncertainty, and offers a reflection on the interconnectedness of all things and the delicate spaces that shape our reality.
Enoki holds an MA (RCA) from the Printmaking Course, Faculty of Fine Art at the Royal College of Art in the UK (1990) and a BA in Art Education from National Okayama University in Japan (1983).
She has been an Associate Member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE) since 2022.
Her work is held in public and corporate collections, including the Ashmolean Museum and the Clifford Chance LLP Collection in the UK, and the Osaka Contemporary Art Center and Kitayama and Company in Japan.
Enoki has been exhibiting in Japan and overseas since 1985. Some of the notable exhibitions she has participated in include: RE Original Prints (2023, 2024) , London Original Print Fair (2023, 2024), the Fuji Paper Art Museum solo exhibition "Mayumi Enoki-Bound" (2023), the International Original Print Exhibition (2022, 2023, 2024), the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair (2021 and 2022), the Megalo Intaglio Online Exhibition (2020 and 2021), the Nishieda Foundation Grant Exhibition, a two-person exhibition as part of the Support to Emerging Curators and Artists programme (2019), and the Yozo Hamaguchi 100th Anniversary International Print Competition and Exhibition (2009).
In 2017, Enoki participated in the London Summer Intensive residency programme at the Slade School of Fine Art / Camden Arts Centre, and presented her work at the London Summer Intensive Showcase at the Camden Arts Centre.
Enoki also gave a Visiting Artist Talk as part of the Visiting Artist Talk Series at Taipei National University of the Arts, School of Fine Arts in 2016. She also received the Hiroshima Scholarship from the Hiroshima International Cultural Foundation, Inc. (1988-90).
From the early 1990s to the mid 2000s, Enoki worked as an associate professor and lecturer in graphic design and printmaking at various art colleges in Japan.