Lady Aiko is an internationally renown street artist from Japan. Lady Aiko was born in Tokyo, Japan. The artist attended college at Tokyo Zokei University where she studied filmmaking and graphics design. Lady Aiko went on to earn an M.F.A. from the New School located in New York City.
After college the artist worked with Japan’s version of Andy Warhol, Takashi Murikami.
The artist has also worked with the street legend Banksy, taking pictures of the artist whilst Banksy made unauthorized installations at the Museum of Modern Art located in New York City. She has also worked with the group F.A.I.LE.
Below we check out a show by Aiko that took place at the Standard Hotel located in Los Angeles, California:
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Below a great interview with Lady Aiko plus a studio visit!:
Although the artist Banksy calls street art a movement featuring few females some other great female street artists include Faith 47, Swoon, Maya Hayuk, and Miss Van.
Shiro Takagi was a wonderful printmaker renown for his work with the landscape and birds. Takagi Shiro was born in Hirosaki, Aomori prefecture, Japan in the year 1934.
The artist attended Musashino College of Fine Art located in Tokyo, Japan. The artist quit before graduating as he didn’t like the class structure. Takagi also studied privately with an established printmaker, Amano Kunihiro.
Takagi won many prizes at shows featuring print works in both Japan and Brazil.
Shiro Takagi passed away in 1998.
The artist is part of the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
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As mentioned in a recent post, many woodblock print artists use the pattern and grain of the wood to give their finished work a high level of abstraction. Takagi sometimes uses the pattern of wood as the clouds and sky.
Fumio Fujita is a master Japanese printmaker renown for his landscapes and images of trees. In his later years his focus has been mainly on trees, but in his earlier years he worked with the landscapes and also made wonderful prints of animals.
Fumio Fujita was born in Aichi prefecture, Japan in the year 1933.
The artist attended Musashino College of Fine Arts located in the western part of Tokyo, Japan.
Fujita began producing woodblock prints in 1963.
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Fujita shows a remarkable sense of design always looking for patterns in items such as tree bark and leaves. Overall his work shows a great blend of realism and abstraction.
Noriko Yamamoto is a Japanese artist renown for her abstract art born in the year 1929. As a child she was taught the fine art of calligraphy by her father. Yamamoto’s family moved to Tokyo, Japan when she was a young child.
Her family lived in Honolulu, Hawaii from 1935 to 1941 before moving back to Tokyo, Japan in 1941.
In the 1950s the artist would relocate to the United States where she attended the California College of Arts and Crafts located in Oakland, California. An important mentor for the artist was the painter Richard Diebenkorn.
Yamamoto earned both a bachelors of fine art and masters of fine arts degree.
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The artist works in acrylics, watercolors, oils, sculpture, and collage.
Hajime Namiki is a Japanese woodblock master renown for his prints of trees. Hajime Namiki was born Tokyo, Japan in the year 1947.
Namiki studied with another master woodblock artist named Shigeru Ogura.Although he is associated with prints, Namiki began his art career as a sculptor. Ogura was a highly regarded sculptor Namiki began studying with him in 1965. The artist began to work with prints in the 1970s.
Namiki works often with oil pigments on paper. In addition he often uses gold and silver leaf in his work.
The paper he uses is Torinoko Paper.
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Trees are a wonderful subject because they have very interesting texture in the bark. The artist can also use the shapes of the leaves and negative space between branches in addition to color to make trees a wonderful subject to use for expression.
Some other fantastic artists who are renown for their work with trees include Scott Duce, Richard Schmid, Albert Handell, and Lynn Boggess. Natasha Wescoat, and Peter Hoffer.
Konen Uehara was a Japanese wood block print artist renown or his fantastic landscapes. Konen Uehara was born in Tokyo, Japan in the year 1878. Uehara attended the Japan Fine Arts Academy.
Uehara enjoyed mixing in western painting ideas in his work.
The artist was named to a position in government titled the secretary of the National Painting Cultivation Society. Whilst in this post he emphasized a Modernist approach to painting.
The artist was also employed by the Imperial Family. He also did some collaborations with publisher Watanabe Shozaburo.
Konen Uehara passed away in 1940.
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It enjoy the wonderful greys used by the artist in his skies.
Tamami Shima was a fantastic Japanese artist born in Hirosaki, Aomori prefecture, Japan in the year 1937. Tamami Shima worked with woodblock prints and is renown for her majestic landscapes and also her still life works. Her still life works are my favorite as they show the view as if you are looking down upon the object.
The lines in her depictions of vases and vessels are very modern, clean, and elegant. The artist also had a wonderful mix of realism and abstraction in her landscapes, Shima used the silhouette of the bird to create a wonderful mix of shapes and movement.
Shima attended the Women’s College of Fine Arts located in Tokyo, Japan.
Tamami Shima passed away in 1999.
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Another great idea the artist had was to use the pattern of the wood grain as an abstract background for her artwork that used birds as a subject.
Jun Dobashi was a Japanese painter renowned for his abstract paintings. Jun Dobashi was born in Tokyo, Japan in the year 1910. Dobashi studied at the Tokyo Academy of Art and later in life he would move to Paris.
His move to Europe was very influential to his career. His painting evolved into a much more abstract style.
Dobashi passed away in 1975.
Price range information: Works range from $2,000 to $20,000. The artist worked in watercolors, oils, gouache, mixed media, and was also an avid printmaker.
Osamu Sugiyama is a current Japanese woodblock master artist who studied with famous artist Hiroshi Yoshida. Osamu Sugiyama was born in Tokyo, Japan in the year 1946.
Sugiyama studied at the Yoshida Hanga Academy. The School was founded by the Yoshida family of artists to continue the art of Japanese woodblock art.
Sugiyama loves to travel and hiking, the artist has painted many scenes of mountains he has climbed. Hiroshi Yoshida, his teacher, was perhaps the most famous printmaker that worked with mountains as a subject. Each mountain has its own feel, atmosphere, and energy. As you climb the light changes and so does the atmosphere from when you begin on the ground. Sugiyama like his teacher, Hiroshi Yoshida, do a great job of catching the individuality of each peak and mountain.
I love the depth the artist is able to get in his mountain works. A key aspect in his design is the footsteps and trails of previous hikers.
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