Sophie Mayuko Arni is a Swiss-Japanese curator, editor, and exhibition manager based in the Arabian Gulf.
Sophie Mayuko Arni is a Swiss-Japanese curator and editor based in the UAE, working across site-specific installations and digital publishing. She is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Global Art Daily, a platform overseeing the publication of biannual E-Issues archiving the Gulf’s contemporary art scenes in a global context. In parallel to her editorial activities, her curatorial work aims to connect inter-Asian geographies with shared visions of nostalgia, futurism, and ecology.
On a journey to bridge East and East, she started the “East-East: UAE meets Japan” exhibition series in 2016. Currently in its fifth volume, the exhibition series brought together the works of UAE-based and Japanese artists in various galleries and festivals in Japan and the UAE. Previously a curator at the SRR Project Space, Tokyo, she currently works as Artistic and Curatorial Manager at Pico EMEA, delivering large-scale public art projects in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Most recently, she was part of the curatorial team of Noor Riyadh’s fourth edition “Light Years Apart” (2024), overseeing the commission and installation of 62 artworks, and curated “The Big Flat Now” at Dubai Festival City Mall (2023), Lamya Gargash’s solo show “Isthmus” at The Third Line, Dubai (2023), and “Gravitation” by Jukan Tateisi, Shōei Matsuda, and Takeshi Yasura at SRR Project Space, Tokyo (2023).
She graduated with a B.A. in Art & Art History from NYU Abu Dhabi and with an MPhil in Arts Studies and Curatorial Practices from Tokyo University of the Arts.
About East-East: UAE meets Japan: Currently in its fifth volume, the exhibition series brought together the works of Farah Al Qasimi, Alaa Edris, Hashel Al Lamki, Lamya Gargash, waiwai research and design agency, Khalid Mezaina, Shaikha Al Ketbi, Christopher Joshua Benton, Tomoki Kurokawa, Bady Dalloul, Heijiro Yagi, and Rintaro Fuse, amongst others, in various independent venues in Japan and the UAE including the NYU Abu Dhabi Project Space (2016), CHI-KA Space on Alserkal Avenue (2017-18), HB.Nezu (2021), and Atami Art Grant (2022).
Writing and publishing: Sophie Mayuko Arni is the Founder of Global Art Daily (GAD), a publishing and curatorial platform for the growth of the Gulf’s contemporary art scene. She leads the Editorial Board of Global Art Daily E-Issues, a bi-annual publication archiving the region's artistic growth. Since 2015, GAD has published more than 100 texts on artists and exhibitions contributing to the Gulf’s burgeoning art scene, with an international team of editors and contributors.
Sophie has also written exhibition reviews and artist interviews for titles such as Arab News, Architectural Digest Middle East, and SOLE Magazine, and has conducted research for The Fiker Institute on exhibitions of Arab artists in Japan. She often moderates talk panels about the contemporary art in the Gulf.