Mika Horibuchi was born in 1991 in San Francisco, California, and received her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013. She currently lives and works in Chicago. She is the co-founder and co-director of an artist-run gallery space, 4th Ward Project Space, located in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
I have lived in Chicago for over five years and can happily call this city my home. I am a painter. I have an ideal studio space, which I share with Dan Rizzo-Orr that I love and work in every day. My paintings center themselves around an obtuse sense of realities and fictions. They exercise human perception and notions of the fake, the real, and preconceived ideas that orchestrate how we see and look. Familiar objects and surfaces are all divided by this sense of reality and fiction. Existing between these two mechanisms, my work aims to hide and reveal itself simultaneously, often acting a screen.



What are some recent, upcoming or current projects you are working on?
I recently closed a two-person painting show, View with a Room, with Dan Rizzo-Orr at Heaven Gallery, which I was very involved with for the first several months of the year. I am currently working on a few different projects and exhibitions, the most immediate one being Complementary Width, a group exhibition at The Franklin. And as always, I am working alongside co-directors James Kao and Valentina Zamfirescu to develop 4th Ward Project Space.

How did your interest in art begin?
My initial interest in art can be attributed to my mother who is not an artist, but is very much a maker. Seeing her fix and create things with her hands made me want to imitate. My interest in art definitely began from this intuition to want to craft using my hands.

One invention you wish existed?
This definitely would not be a radical invention, but I just really wish a better train system existed in Chicago.

Favorite place to shop?
My favorite place to shop is either eBay or Amazon.



What other artists are you interested in right now?
I am currently looking at (or have been interested in for a while) artists Naama Arad, Hreinn Friðfinnsson, Laurent Grasso, and John Wesley.

What do you collect?
I recently started collecting lapel pins as accessories, and also things.

What’s your favorite thing about the city?
The strong alternative gallery scene in Chicago is one of my favorite things about this city. I think it is quite unique to Chicago and it is thriving. Other favorite things about Chicago include the Art Institute, Garfield Park Conservatory, and the Niles King Spa (just outside of Chicago).

What is your beverage of choice when working in your studio?
Water

What do you do when you’re not working on art?
When I’m not working or working on art in my studio, I am usually crafting at home, doing some kind of handwork or fixing furniture.