Sono Kuwayama, who lives and works in New York City, is a visual artist working with installation through painting, sculpture and video.  She finds fluidity in working between various disciplines so she can achieve the freedom to create without limitation. For Kuwayama, an intimate connection to her materials is essential: “nearly everything she creates is sourced by hand. She forages berries and crushes charcoal to add pigment to milk compound paints while spinning her own yarn and going so far as to identify the sheep that it came from.” (Rebecca Kim, Hypebeast, 2020). The works and installations born of these materials exist in the paradigm of spatial relationships and are often site specific.  

The daughter of artists, Tadaaki Kuwayama and Rakuko Naito, Kuwayama grew up immersed in the art world.  After attending Yale University’s summer painting program, she continued to receive her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 1990, where she studied with Jackie Windsor and Judy Pfaff amongst others.  Her works on film about artists include A Night at the Poet’s Cafe, an interview with Agnes Martin and Forrest Bess: Key to the Riddle. Her public art initiative Bringing Back Bowery was celebrated by The Brooklyn Rail, artnet News, Reuters, and NBC.  Kuwayama shows with Ki Smith Gallery and her work is featured in several prominent private and corporate collections.