​​​​

​

村尾里奈（1975年、名古屋市生まれ）
現在、愛知県在住。愛知県立芸術大学美術学部准教授。専門分野：金属彫刻、空間表現。矩形の構造体を用いて、人間の精神性や空間性と本質的に結びつく広大な地平との相互関係を探求している。

​​

​​

幼少期の一部を米国フィラデルフィアおよびニューヨーク州シャトークア郡で過ごす。音楽家の家庭に育ち、ヴァイオリン、ピアノ、パーカッションを学ぶ。言語と音楽におけるリズムの構造とその空間性は、現在の彫刻制作に影響を与え続けている。

​

愛知県立旭丘高等学校美術科にて日本画と彫刻を学び、卒業後米国に留学。ニューヨーク州アルフレッド大学アート&デザイン学部にて学士号を取得（1998年）。留学中、人文地理学への関心を深め、人間・空間・場所に関する哲学に触れる。さらに空間と場所を作る側の視点を学ぶため、ハーバード大学デザイン大学院キャリアディスカバリプログラム (1997年 単位取得）にてランドスケープ・アーキテクチャーを学び視野を広げる。

​​

帰国後、愛知県大府市の彫刻家石浜学に金属加工を学ぶ。2000年より東京藝術大学大学院彫刻科にて、ステンレスの野外彫刻を専門とする木戸修教授に学び、修士号（2002年）、博士号（2006年）を取得。

現在は、金属彫刻における色と表面処理の可能性を探求しながら、創作活動と彫刻教育に取り組んでいる。

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

​

​
 

Her work explores the relationship between humans as spatial beings—shaped by lived experience—and the surrounding vastness to which they are inherently connected.
 

The forms of her sculptures derive in part from the built environment of her upbringing in postwar Japan—uniform reinforced-concrete apartment blocks shaped by modernist ideals of efficiency and repetition. Within these standardized architectural “boxes,” she discovered intimate spaces—closets, balconies, the space beneath a piano—that became sites of refuge and imagination.

During her childhood in the United States, she also lived near Lake Erie, where the horizon of the Great Lake would appear and disappear from view. This experience of an expansive, shifting horizon left a lasting imprint on her spatial sensibility.

Having lived in both Japan and the United States, her practice reflects a quiet tension between constructed modern environments and vast natural landscapes. Her work enters into dialogue with American Minimalism and its post-minimal developments—particularly in its use of industrial materials and structural clarity—while drawing on spatial concepts rooted in traditional Japanese architecture, such as the tea house and garden, where a confined space evokes an expansive world.

Through this layered synthesis, her sculptures suggest that even the most contained structure can open onto immeasurable vastness.

​​

​

Her recent projects explore the psychological distance between human space and the horizon. In her Balcony series, she uses the balcony as a metaphor for a part of the human mind, marking the boundary between psychological and physical, or personal and extra-personal space.

​​

Murao has received the Nomura Art Prize and grants from foundations including the Nitto Foundation, the Nomura Foundation, the Hibi Science Foundation, and the Toyoaki Scholarship Foundation. Her works are in the collection of the University Art Museum of Tokyo University of the Arts.