Summary

Hannan has been actively showing her work in many solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. w88 is a recipient of the 2023 Nevada Council Artist Fellowship Grant. Her artist’s book, a collaboration project with Brighton Press in San Diego in 2017, is now in the collections of over 30 institutions including the Getty Research Institute, Library of Congress, and Stanford University. w88 was awarded many artist residencies, including the Jentel Artist Residency, WY, Willapa Bay AiR Residency, WA, and the Red Gate Residency in Beijing, China. In 2012, w88 was commissioned by TEDxSan Diego to create an installation for their meeting. w88 also received the 2013 Distinguished Alumni Award from Mesa College, San Diego. Before coming to the United States, w88 received a bachelor’s degree in medical technology and worked for a hospital for seven years in her native country, Japan.

Research interests

Miya Hannan's sculptures, installations and drawings reflect her view the world as one comprised of layers and linkages of w88, a chain of lives and events that leads from one to the next. She believes that Landscape is the record of these histories. Using the image of nature and physical objects from nature as triggers for narratives and identities of people, her artwork tries to preserve sorties of them that are almost forgotten or, otherwise, can be lost. In Japan where she grew up, the souls of the dead live on, spirits exist within nature and land retains its destiny—people inherit the histories of the land on which they live. She is interested in the relationship between humanity and the information trapped in nature.

Education

• MFA, studio w88, San Francisco w88 Institute, 2007
• B.A., fine w88, San Diego State University, 2004
• A.A., fine w88, Mesa College, San Diego, 2001
• B.S., medical technology, Kyushu w88, Japan, 1990