Biography. 

Mei Shibata is a multicultural artist whose work is rooted in the idea of play, using color, form, and perception as tools for exploration.

Born in Tokyo, educated in Boston, and with art studios in New York and Nice, Mei has painted since youth, earning early recognition when she won 1st place in the National Peace Poster Competition and had her work was exhibited and sold by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

Working primarily in acrylics, she creates compositions where color interacts with space and time, flattening, deepening, or subtly setting a scene in motion. Her work spans a range of approaches, from playful, object-driven imagery to more abstract explorations of color, structure, and place.

Influenced by her background in physics and medical engineering, Mei approaches play with precision—treating it as a method for testing how visual elements shape perception. This is balanced by a sensitivity to immediacy, informed by her experience in branding, where images must communicate quickly and clearly.

The result is work that feels both joyful and intentional, carrying a sense of curiosity and discovery while remaining visually resolved. Through both original paintings and accessible limited editions under Urban Palette, she creates pieces that immediately invite engagement and continue to evolve in experience over time.

She has exhibited in juried and group exhibitions across the United States, and her work is held in private collections internationally.