BIO

Ilyáwen Ishii’s photo joiners hold the visible world as something layered, shifting, and alive with memory. Built from multiple images of the same subject, her compositions gather time and perspective into a single field. The work turns photography into an act of return.

Ishii’s practice moves through memory, place, perception, and the unseen charge of ordinary life. In her photo joiners, familiar scenes begin to tilt and open. The images hold documentary evidence and dream logic, moving through interior landscapes and inherited ways of seeing. Her work carries forward the photographic legacy of her great-grandfather, P. H. Polk, who described his own approach as working from the shadow side, the space between light and darkness, where a person’s truth can come forward.

Ilyáwen Ishii (b. 1988, Joint Base Andrews, MD) holds a B.S. in Urban Arts from Coppin State University and is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Community Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has exhibited in group exhibitions at Baltimore Unity Hall and Bearman Gallery at the Douglass-Myers Museum. Her recent honors include the Ron L. Collins Sr. Scholars Award and the Highest GPA in Major award in Urban Arts from Coppin State University. Ishii lives and works in Baltimore, MD.

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Born in 1988, Joint Base Andrews, MD

Resides and works in Baltimore, MD

EDUCATION

2026–Present M.F.A., Mount Royal School of Art

Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

2024–2026 B.A., Urban Arts, Summa Cum Laude

Coppin State University, Baltimore, MD

2021–2023 A.A., General Studies, Humanities Concentration

Community College of Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026 For Us. By Us.

Bearman Gallery, Douglass-Myers Museum, Baltimore, MD

2025 When Roots Run Deep

Baltimore Unity Hall, Baltimore, MD

AWARDS

2026 Ron L. Collins Sr. Scholars Award

College of Arts & Sciences and Education

Coppin State University, Baltimore, MD

2026 Highest GPA in Major — Urban Arts

Senior Academic Achievement Awards, 20th Anniversary

Coppin State University, Baltimore, MD

COMMISSIONS

2025 She Care Mural

Commissioned by the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation

in partnership with Kate Spade New York

Coppin State University campus, Baltimore, MD

PROFESSIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS

2026–Present Ceramics Studio Technician & Teaching Assistant

Urban Arts, Coppin State University, Baltimore, MD

2025–Present Art & Wellness Facilitator, She Care Pods

Coppin State University, Baltimore, MD

2024–2026 Shop Instructor

Open Works, Baltimore, MD

2023–Present Teaching Artist

Art With a Heart, Baltimore, MD