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Born on August 14, 1963, in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, Liku Maria Takahashi grew up in a family deeply rooted in art and spirituality. Her mother descended from a lineage of painters of the Ise Shrine, while her father came from a family of Buddhist priests with a 400-year genealogical line. Immersed from early childhood in artistic and ritual practices, she developed a profound interest in symbolism, spirituality, and presences that transcend ordinary human perception.

After graduating from Tokyo Zokei University in 1993, Takahashi dedicated nearly two decades to contemporary sculpture, exploring innovative forms, materials, and concepts. In December 2009, she completed the invention of "Maris," a method enabling both sighted and visually impaired audiences to experience art through tactile sand compositions integrated with painterly media. Each grain of sand embodies hope, linking materiality with philosophical and spiritual reflection. The Maris method has been presented internationally, including at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics (2016) and the World Blind Union meetings in Tokyo (2017). In May 2019, she received the Gold Cup Special Award at the Concours Lépine International in Paris for this innovative method. In December 2016, she became the first Japanese artist to speak at the UNESCO- affiliated International Forum of NGOs in Paris, addressing challenges of inequality and the unifying power of art.

In 2019, she was invited as Guest of Honour to the Florence Biennale, receiving the "Lorenzo il Magnifico" Special Commendation from the President, and in February 2020 she participated in the centennial celebration of the Italian Union of the Blind and Partially Sighted in Sicily.

Takahashi’s work explores the interplay of light, shadow, and darkness as inseparable dimensions of human experience. Her philosophy is grounded in her experiences at the Mother House in Calcutta, witnessing lives lived in extreme vulnerability. Light represents hope, compassion, and resilience; darkness evokes mortality, solitude, and uncertainty. Understanding this duality is central to her reflection on the human condition.

At the XV Florence Biennale, Takahashi presents three works embodying these concepts. The installation "If Jonathan Livingston Seagull Were a Bird of Passage" draws inspiration from Richard Bach’s celebrated novel (“Jonathan Livingstone Seagull”), in which a seagull seeks to transcend the limits of existence to fly toward freedom and perfection. Takahashi interprets this ideal through two mirrored seagulls — one on a white panel on the floor, one on a black panel on the wall — symbolizing humanity’s collective journey toward unity, like migratory birds navigating darkness together. The installation will also be at the centre of an interactive workshop open to visitors of all ages, allowing hands-on engagement with the Maris method and offering a participatory reflection on the Biennale’s theme, "The Sublime Essence of Light and Darkness: Concepts of Dualism and Unity in Contemporary Art and Design".

"The Most Important Element" meditates on the triad of light, shadow, and darkness as fundamental components of existence, inspired by Mother Teresa’s life and the practice of compassion as a guide through human mortality and hardship. "Queen Elizabeth II With a Mask" addresses vulnerability, protection, and historical consciousness, integrating sand, acrylic, and quartz to convey contemporary social realities in a contemplative manner, inviting reflection on collective responsibility and the fragility of life. By integrating the tactile Maris technique with philosophical and spiritual inquiry, Takahashi creates multisensory experiences engaging viewers intellectually, emotionally, and physically. Her practice combines traditional Japanese aesthetic sensibilities with global humanistic concerns, exploring mortality, empathy, collective consciousness, and the balance between individuality and unity. Across decades of artistic practice, Liku Maria Takahashi demonstrates how art can transcend mere visual experience, becoming a tool for philosophical reflection, ethical meditation, and spiritual awakening, uniting people of diverse perceptions, cultures, and backgrounds in a vision of harmony and collective flourishing.

https://www.likutakahashi.com/