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ARTIST STATEMENT

Mia Mai (b.1997, Leeds) is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher working primarily across sculpture, installation, weaving and image-making. 

Whilst working across mediums and disciplines, Mia’s practice is primarily concerned with interrogation, manipulation and interpretation of objects and materials, particularly of which are handmade, naturally occurring and embedded in the everyday. Her research will often explore those that are found, unseen, displaced, excavated, collected or archived. 

Interested in the notion that objects and materials have the capacity to trace human experience and ecological landscapes across time and place, Mia has a desire to create work which exists within, between and for both our built and natural world.

Mia’s current and on-going research is engaged with ideas of preservation, between the public and the private, the natural and the constructed, Mia is interested in the ways in which our material world can mirror our ways of living, act as witnesses to our daily lives, and above all; remind us that we are part of a much larger network. 

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Education

MA: Design Expanded Practice, 2020 - 2021

Goldsmiths University of London

BA: Textile Design (Weave), 2016 - 2019 

Chelsea College of Arts, [University of Arts London]

Foundation Diploma (Textiles), 2015 - 2016

Leeds Arts University

Awards

Finalist: SCAF Emerging Artist Award, 2024

Winner: Ones To Watch, Sunny Bank Mills Gallery, 2021

Exhibitions 

Let Us See You, The Mill Gallery, 2025

Perception -SCAF Emerging Artist Award, Hatstand Gallery, 2024

Works In Practice, East Street Arts, 2024

Woven Stories, Sunny Bank Mills Gallery, 2023 

Leeds Summer Group Show, The Playhouse, 2022

Ones To Watch, (Judges Choice Award Winner), Sunny Bank Mills Gallery, 2021

Stretch the Spring, Goldsmiths University of London, 2021

Fashion Narratives, Constance Howard Gallery, 2021

New Wave, Boomer Gallery, 2020

Textile Design Group Show, Chelsea College of Arts, 2019

Premier Vision, Paris, 2018

Residencies / Fellowships

AA2A Artist in Residence, York St.John University, 2024/25

Artist Research Fellowship, Henry Moore Foundation, 2022

Artist Residency, Sunny Bank Mills, 2022

Public Commissions

Remember Rana Plaza (permanent public sculpture), commissioned by Sunny Bank Mills, 2023

We Belong Here Together (temporary public installation), commissioned by Studio3Arts, funded by Arts Council England, 2021

Conferences / Talks / Lectures

Visiting Artist Lecture: Leeds Arts University, 2024

Artist Talk: Ways of Living, (in the launch of my sculpture Remember Rana Plaza), Sunny Bank Mills, 2024

Participating Speaker: Touch-Space: the tactile imagination in contemporary sculpture, Henry Moore Foundation X University of Leeds, 2023

Visiting Artist Lecture: Leeds Arts University, 2023

Visiting Artist Lecture: Leeds Arts University, 2022

Email for full CV

 © 2025 Mia Mai Symonds. 

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