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Maiko KITAGAWA
Artists
Written by KALONSNET Editor   
Published: October 12 2008

© Maiko KITAGAWA

Born in 1983 in Saitama-prefecture, studying at the Oil Painting Course, Faculty of Fine Arts of Tokyo University of the Arts.
She spent a lot of time reading when she was little. Her love of  fables from the western world such as My Father's Dragon, her special favorite, is the origin of the themes of her art works. She also got accustomed to drawing the imaginary world inspired by reading, which opened up her way to becoming an artist.
She prefers to use a ballpoint pen for daily sketching of her imaginary world because it is easily available when necessary. Darkness or dense shadow always dominates the background of her imaginary "fable world". Drawing with a ballpoint pen is a means for her to fill up white space.
On the other hand, she has used Dermatographs instead of  ballpoint pens since around 2007. With these it is pretty easy to black out a canvas, and this brought a major turn for her: to draw or "paint black in order to show the white". She talked about her encounter with Dermatograph pencil, "The new member, white, came into my world. I enjoyed expanding what I can do". She came across the Dermatograph  at a lithograph class at  university at a time when she felt the ballpoint pen was limiting her work in both size and content . (For reference, she did not choose lithograph because she has to give up her copper plate once during production and she cannot control all the process until the completion.)
One of the characteristics of her Dermatograph works is shade and texture, obtained by removing the color by "dragging" (shaving) with an eraser after painting black everywhere, in order to dig out white. Her encounter with Dermatographs  seems to indicate a possibility to increase colors. We can hardly wait for the day when she creates colorful works.
She said, "My dream is to transmit my imagination as a new fable world. I look for my painting world to become a new 'lore'." According to the gallery dealing with her works, she creates her work at an extraordinary pace. Her imagination, eagerness for creation,
physical strength, and great and improving skill to support her creation promise to guarantee her future growth.

 

Career
2006
     -    Solo-Exhibit     Story of Tonight's Dream     Gallery Ginza Forest
2007
     -    Entry / Award    Linea    Galeria Punto
     -    Solo-Exhibit     still not awake...one step    Gallery Ginza Forest
     -    Entry / Award    belladonna FESTA     die pratze, Kagurazaka
     -    Entry / Award    Geidai Arts in    MARUCUBE, Marunouchi Building
     -    Group Exhibit    THE6    YOKOHAMA RED BRICK WAREHOUSE
     -    Entry / Award    via art    SHINWA ART MUSEUM
2008
     -    Group Exhibit    Three artists exhibition "three ids"    010 Gallery, Toride
     -    Group Exhibit    J-ART in Shanghai    Refined Nest Gallery, Shanghai
  (Oct) Solo-Exhibit     still not awake...one step    GALERIE TAIMEI, Tokyo
2009
  (Sep) Group Exhibit    Four Artist Exhibition    ANNEX Gallery, Tokyo

Last Updated on November 04 2016
 

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