Shino Watabe

is a Japanese artist who has lived and worked in Mexico permanently since 1990. She has had numerous individual and collective exhibitions in Mexico, more recently working with a group of Mexican and Japanese female artists called Flor de Maguey. In 2008, she partially lost her sight due to illness, but she remains a working artist, continuing to create and exhibit her work.

Life Shino Watabe was born in 1970 in Tokyo, Japan. According to Watabe, she was a lonely girl who grew up with a “hell” in her heart. Instead of seeing things outwardly, she preferred to see them inwardly.

She studied from 1985 to 1988 at the preparatory school affiliated with the Women’s University of Fine Arts. From 1987 to 1988 she studied painting and drawing at the Evening School of Fine Arts of the Yoyogi Seminary. From 1988 to 1990, she studied at the Women’s University of Fine Arts majoring in painting. In 1990, she came to Mexico City to study at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas of UNAM. She has studied under Jesús Martínez, Pedro Ascencio and Gilberto Aceves Navarro. She is one of many Japanese artists who have come to Mexico because of the culture the opportunities it affords them. Watabe has no interest in returning permanently to Japan.

Career Shino Watabe and Shoko Sumi at the opening of "Experimentando con gatos" exhibition at the Garros Galería. In her early career, she participated in ten collective exhibitions in both Japan and Mexico. In 2012, she exhibited Experimentando con gatos at the Garros Galería.

Her work was featured in 1997 in the Trabajo Social magazine published by UNAM. Flor de Maguey’s works reflect, through painting and sculpture, on the traditions, life and nature of the two countries represented in the group.

Artistry Her work is mostly autobiographical, strongly influenced by figurative art. Her work still contains some Japanese aesthetic despite living in Mexico for over twenty years. Her creativity is introverted. She relates a story that when she was a child, she would take stones from the bottom of a river, which shined as they were wet. However, when she got them home, they would be dry and less attractive. She has found the same effect with words, profound as she thinks them but less important once said. It is also the reason she paint self-portraits, keeping an element of the internal. One of these was painted just after the 2011 Japan earthquake to capture her feelings about the disaster. Watabe’s works often speak of pain and melancholy, but also with an element of strength. She states her aim is that with enthusiasm and love we can continue against difficulties. However, her work has also included flowers and women who are magical and related to flowers in some way, using rich colors.