About 

Mia Taninaka is a Japanese–Australian artist living and working on Bundjalung Country, Northern NSW. Her multidisciplinary practice spans a range of mediums, with a primary focus on oil painting.

Her work draws on myth, mysticism, and the more-than-human world, expressed through organic line, expansive colour, and layered narrative. Taninaka’s paintings often unfold as immersive story-verses where humans and nature co-exist, inviting a sense of re-wilding, remembrance, and embodied connection.

Deeply influenced by the natural landscapes she inhabits, her practice reflects an evolving relationship with the wild world and functions as a visual interpretation of a mythic journey beyond surface reality - into instinct, symbolism, and inner terrain.

Alongside her visual practice, Mia offers one-on-one creative mentoring through Embrace the Serpent, supporting artists and creatives to reconnect with their innate creative force. Drawing on breathwork, kriya, and embodied inquiry, this work bridges somatic practice with creative process, helping participants move through blocks, deepen intuition, and access sustained creative flow.

“If the artist has outer and inner eyes for nature, nature rewards him by giving him inspiration.”

– Wassily Kandinsky