Michael Rikio Ming Hee Ho

Feb to Apr 2026

Image credit: Johnny Le

Michael Rikio Ming Hee Ho (b. 1996, Kamuela, Hawaiʻi) is a Japanese and Cantonese American artist based in Tokyo. His practice utilizes a coordinated system of language, collage logic, and trompe-l’œil painting to examine the mechanisms of emotional insulation and the performative nature of selfhood in a post-social-media landscape.

Developed in response to the compressed urban scale of Tokyo, Ho’s works often take the shape of trompe-l’œil box forms. These structures function as surrogates for the body, asserting a physical presence through posture, leaning or tilting to mimic the dynamics of a conversation. The surfaces of these forms act as archival sites where familiar and nostalgic imagery, personal ephemera, and linguistic ruminations accumulate. 

By layering text that mirrors the cadence of unsent late-night messages and internal monologues, Ho explores a contemporary condition defined by an oscillation, between wry optimism and self-aware insecurity. The performance of identity in his work serves both as a critique of a compulsive self-categorization and as a symptom of cultural dislocation.

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