Tatsuo
Miyajima
Tatsuo Miyajima, Japanese Contemporary Artist, explores the passage of time using LED numbers, light, and technology. If you're looking for Tatsuo Miyajima original prints and editions for sale or would like to sell, request a complimentary valuation and browse our network's most in-demand works.
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Biography
Tatsuo Miyajima, born in Tokyo in 1957, is a pioneering voice in Contemporary Art known for his integration of technology, light, and spirituality. His signature LED installations, featuring numbers that cycle from one to nine without displaying zero, reflect his guiding principles of change, connection, and continuity.
Influenced by Buddhist philosophy, Miyajima’s art serves as a meditation on existence and time. His work invites audiences to explore the cyclical nature of life and humanity’s place within the construct of time.
His philosophy—“Keep Changing, Connect with Everything, Continue Forever“—guides his work, using LED counters as metaphors for the impermanence and interdependence of life.
Miyajima’s journey as an artist began in Tokyo, where he studied at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, laying the foundation for his conceptual approach. His early works encompassed Performance and Installation Art, and he gradually embraced digital LED devices in the late 1980s, a medium which became a pillar of his artistic practice.
Notable works such as Sea of Time (1988) and Counter Voice In The Air (1996) highlight Miyajima’s interest exploring time’s passage and human resilience. In Sea of Time, for example, each LED display is programmed to switch on and off at a specific speed, symbolising the rhythms inherent to life while the wires nod to the the interconnectedness of all living things. Beyond Japan, his installations have reached audiences worldwide, with key exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, where he represented Japan, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Miyajima’s work often responds to social issues. His ongoing project Sea of Time – TOHOKU, for example, is a tribute to the victims of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. It aims to permanently install 3,000 LED counters in the Tohoku region, serving as a memorial and preserving their memories. His work also includes projects about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, making his art a platform for reflection on collective trauma.