Chiho Aoshima art

Debuting in the art scene with no formal art training, Chiho Aoshima’s work transcends traditional techniques of representation. Aoshima uses computer software to create beautiful and erotic worlds of ghosts, demons, schoolgirls, and exquisite natural landscapes.


Her work is printable on any surface; from canvas bags to giant wallpaper installations. “My work feels like strands of my thoughts that have flown around the universe before coming back to materialize,” Aoshima states.

Aoshima’s work has garnered international renown with a number of high profile projects. She collaborated with Issey Miyake in 2003, with her artwork featured in the spring/summer collection.

In 2004, she was invited to participate in the 54th Carnegie International at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, where she unveiled her largest wallpaper piece to date, measuring 106 feet (32.5m ) in length by 15 feet (4.8m ) in height.

In May 2005, as part of the Little Boy project, her ecologically-themed “City Glow” and “Paradise” series covered ad spaces throughout the Union Square subway station in New York, greeting commuters as they passed.

In a solo show in 2005, Aoshima presented both her first sculptural work and a 5-screen 7-minute animation piece.

n 2006, Akane Koide presented a booth at GEISAI, and was scouted by Kaikai Kiki at the young age of 15. The themes of her works, such as “Looking at another me (eyes),” “Wrist slit,” “The distance between me and my cell phone,” speak of the trials and tribulations of junior- and high-school students, expressed firsthand by junior-high school student Koide.

Heavily influenced by the otaku culture of sexually explicit manga, Kunikata’s work adopts the genre’s conventions to explore and communicate issues of abandonment, masochism, and depression. Often filling notebook after notebook with nightmarish depictions of cruelty, Kunikata’s personal drive to produce drawings overpowers the careful, methodical approach necessary to produce a professional comic work. The result is raw, powerful, and innovative.

Introduced to the art world through Takashi Murakami’s GEISAI event and its precursor Geijutsu Dojo, Kunikata has shown her work in several group exhibitions internationally, including Little Boy at the Japan Society in New York and J’en Rêve at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris.
aking his name from the national baseball superstar Shigeo Nagashima’s alias “Mister,” Mr. began as the protégé of Takashi Murakami, and has worked as an artist for over eight years. Praised by Paul McCarthy as having “an unbearable irresistibility in its tiny, innocent world,” Mr.’s works range from drawings and paintings to large sculpture.

Whether they are “innocent” or not remains a question. Mr.’s works are “Japanese” in their anime-inspired, large-eyed characters and flat color fields. Portraying cute cartoon characters in a sexual context, Mr.’s work embodies the Lolita-esque fascination with young children found frequently in the Japanese comic industry. Is it cultural commentary or an exploration of his own fascination? Perhaps it is the potential for both that gives his work such power.
Also a performance and video artist, four of Mr.’s anime-inspired sculptural pieces were installed in Issey Miyake’s Aoyama boutique in Tokyo for Christmas season of 2004. His work, like that of his mentor,

is character driven, and a small green sponge-like character “Toshihiko Yokohama” which he created was adopted by the pop band Kicell for their album design.