Emi Kusano

Emi Kusano is a multidisciplinary artist born in Tokyo in 1990. Her practice integrates emerging technologies, including AI, to explore nostalgia, pop culture, and collective memory. Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including M+ Museum (Hong Kong), Saatchi Gallery (London), Grand Palais Immersif (Paris), Museum Francisco Carolinum (Linz), and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. She participated in a Gucci-Christie’s auction in 2023 and a charity auction by Christie’s and UNHCR in 2024. In 2025, she was recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.​

 Kusano began her artistic career as a teenage street photographer, documenting Harajuku’s fashion culture, which led to an exhibition at Victoria and Albert Museum. Her experiences in photography and fashion informed her creative vision, exploring how mass media shapes individual and collective identities.

 Beyond visual art, she is the founder and lead singer of Satellite Young, a music group reinterpreting 1980s J-POP through a contemporary sci-fi lens, performing internationally at events including SXSW.​

 By integrating AI and digital technologies into her creative process, Kusano positions technology as a collaborative partner rather than a defining element. Her works invite audiences to reconsider contemporary society through dialogues between past and present, expressed within a retro-futuristic aesthetic.

［Group Exhibitions］

• 2025-05: Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival, M+ Museum, Hong Kong 
• 2025-05: New Dimensions: Expanded Consciousness, Mikke Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 
• 2025-03: Office Ladies, ArtVerse, Paris, France 
• 2025-03: RIVALS – Photography vs. Promptography, Galerie Guelman und Unbekannt, Berlin, Germany 
• 2025-01: The Second-Guess, House of Electronic Arts, Basel, Switzerland 
• 2024-12: AI: The Expo, Discovery Museum, Kerkrade, Netherlands 
• 2024-11: TOKYO ART BOOK FAIR, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan 
• 2024-11: AI Biennale: Essen Reimagine Tomorrow, 1954–2024, Stiftung Zollverein and Digital Campus Zollverein, Essen, Germany 
• 2024-11: 19th Digital Art Festival Taipei, Art Space IV, Future Square Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab, Taipei, Taiwan 
• 2024-10: Artificial Dreams, MEET Digital Culture Centre, Milan, Italy 
• 2024-09: Art of Punk, Museum Francisco Carolinum, Linz, Austria 
• 2024-03: Artificial Dreams, Grand Palais Immersif, Paris, France 
• 2024-03: Now in Digital Art: Game Room, Akbank Sanat, Istanbul, Turkey 
• 2023-12: Neural Fad: AI Dreams Nostalgia, NIPPON TV IMAGINARIUM AWARD 2023 Jury Presentation, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan 
• 2023-12: The Gateway Miami – Art Basel Miami, Ferena Forum, Miami, United States 
• 2023-10: DXP (Digital Transformation Planet): Towards the Next Interface, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan 
• 2023-10: Long Live London, Saatchi Gallery, London, United Kingdom 
• 2023-09: E-Motions, UNIT London, London, United Kingdom 
• 2023-07: Christie’s 3.0 presents Future Frequencies: Explorations in Generative Art and Fashion in collaboration with Gucci, Rockefeller Center, New York, United States 
• 2023-06: Non Fungible Conference, Carlos Lopes Pavilion, Lisbon, Portugal 
• 2023-05: Bright Moments Tokyo, Shibuya Parco, Tokyo, Japan 
• 2020-08: Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom 
• 2019-11: SIGGRAPH ASIA Art Gallery, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, Brisbane, Australia 
• 2018-03: Art Hack Day, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, Tokyo, Japan 
• 2011-04: Japan Fashion Now, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, United States