Born in Tokyo in 1957. Completed postgraduate studies at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1986. Since his debut in Aperto ’88 at the Venice Biennale, he has been recognized as one of Japan’s foremost contemporary artists and has exhibited widely in Japan and internationally.

He represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and has held major solo exhibitions at leading institutions including Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (1990), Hayward Gallery, London (1997), Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery (2000), Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2002), Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma (2004), Art Tower Mito (2008), and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2016). His works are held in the collections of Tate, London; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; among others. He has also realized large-scale public art commissions such as for TV Asahi at Roppongi Hills, Benesse Art Site Naoshima, Tokyo Opera City, and Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul.

Miyajima is best known for his LED counter works, based on three key concepts: Keep Changing, Connect with Everything, Continue Forever. The counters, each blinking at different speeds and never displaying zero, evoke the continuity, eternity, and interconnectedness of time and human life.

He is the founder of the Revive Time: Kaki Tree Project, which propagates seedlings from a persimmon tree that survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and plants them worldwide. More recently, he has been engaged in the Sea of Time – TOHOKU project, which seeks to carry forward the memories of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake while envisioning a new future for the Tohoku region.

Miyajima’s solo exhibition is currently on view at the Asia University Museum of Modern Art, Taichung, Taiwan, through July 2026.