Hanae Utamura is a Japanese visual artist. Utamura’s media include video, performance, installation, and sculpture. She connects human beings and earth, using the physical human body as a conduit. Negotiations and conflicts between the human and the non-human, and how all the varieties of the wills of life manifest, have been the central focus of her practice. By decentralizing the human perspective, Utamura diversifies historical narratives, and enters the imagination of nature.

She received her masters degree in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design and bachelor degree in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. Utamura has received support through numerous international residencies and fellowships including Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center (Buffalo, U.S.), Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgard, Germany), Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin), PACT Zollverein (Essen, Germany), Art Omi (Hudson, U.S.), Santa Fe Art Institute Residency, Aomori Contemporary Art Center (Japan), National Museum of Contemporary Art, Changdong Art Studio (Seoul, S.Korea), Seoul Art Space_GEUMCHEON (Seoul, S.Korea), Florence Trust (London, U.K.) and more. She has been awarded MoreArt Engaging Artist Fellowship, NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program, Shiseido Art Egg Award, Grant program by the Japanese Ministry of Culture, the Pola Art Foundation, Nomura Art Foundation, i-style Art and Sports Foundation, UNESCO-Aschberg Bursary Award, and Axis/Florence Trust Award. And has been exhibited extensively in Asia, Europe and U.S. She was a visiting scholar at New York University in 2019, supported by Japanese Ministry of Culture, Japanese government as a part of Japan – United States Exchange Friendship Program in the Art.