PRINTPROVENANCE:
Gallery Delaive, Amsterdam
Private collection, Netherlands
Catalogue Note:
Ayako Rokkaku was born in January 24, 1982, in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. In 2001, when she was nearly 20, Rokkaku started creating at home, in the park, or on the street. In 2002, she signed up for the GEISAI. At the beginning, she either sketched in sketchbooks or painted on cardboard. She developed a skill to paint directly with her hands on abandoned cardboard, hence her art features improvisational, street-art-like, and arte povera characteristics.
Painting makes her happy. Since Rokkaku repeatedly won awards at GEISAI in 2006, she was given the opportunity to participate in exhibitions in Switzerland, France, and the United States. Moreover, the Dutch art dealer offered to be her global representation.
“The hand directs where the fingers point. They are more powerful than words.” She is a self-taught painter, without conventional views or grand theories on aestheticism as the foundation of her creations.
Instead, she grew up under the influence of Japanese contemporary comics and animation. That, together with her acute observation and intricate feelings that she was born with, makes her a person who simply enjoys sketching.
In daily life, cardboard is a ubiquitous material. It is light and can stand up straight by itself. When dabbing it with hands filled with acrylic pigments, she can feel the warm sense of touch. Or, the rents torn in the cardboard and the feeling of coloring are both what the painter is fond of. Occasionally, she still paints in this way.
In addition to cardboard, she started painting on the canvas and displayed her works one by one. This was a big transformation to her creation. When she painted on cardboard in the past, she used to place the paper flat on the floor. Later, when she turned to canvas, she chose to erect it and felt delighted when seeing the pigments flowing down from the canvas. She saw the pigments obeying the law of gravity and wanted to capture that sense of fluidity in her work. She not only painted with her bare hands, without brushes and without drafting; she also often faced her canvas barefoot, letting her hands and body participate in the creation.
From self-analysis, Rokkaku listed three characteristics of her paintings: “plain scribbling,” “the act of getting out something inside me,” and “kid’s drawing.” The kid-like drawing was to practice lines, but she found scribbling to be fun. At first, she painted whatever she saw and then repeatedly practiced painting the subjects in her sketchbook. When she paints, she almost never studies but paints with intuition.
The major themes throughout her painting history are girls and children, and she often portrays them in close-ups. The figures in her painting are often unsmiling. Their eyes may be opened wide and their lips pressed together, or they may look angry. She said her figures went from two sets of extremes: “escaping and chasing” or “looking away and staring.” Most of the main figures in her paintings are walking in large strides. Other common elements in her paintings are repetitive random sketches and animals. Having elongated arms or overly large eyes, bright colors or simplified details, they are all
influenced by Japanese animation culture.
Gallery Delaive, Amsterdam
Private collection, Netherlands
Catalogue Note:
Ayako Rokkaku was born in January 24, 1982, in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. In 2001, when she was nearly 20, Rokkaku started creating at home, in the park, or on the street. In 2002, she signed up for the GEISAI. At the beginning, she either sketched in sketchbooks or painted on cardboard. She developed a skill to paint directly with her hands on abandoned cardboard, hence her art features improvisational, street-art-like, and arte povera characteristics.
Painting makes her happy. Since Rokkaku repeatedly won awards at GEISAI in 2006, she was given the opportunity to participate in exhibitions in Switzerland, France, and the United States. Moreover, the Dutch art dealer offered to be her global representation.
“The hand directs where the fingers point. They are more powerful than words.” She is a self-taught painter, without conventional views or grand theories on aestheticism as the foundation of her creations.
Instead, she grew up under the influence of Japanese contemporary comics and animation. That, together with her acute observation and intricate feelings that she was born with, makes her a person who simply enjoys sketching.
In daily life, cardboard is a ubiquitous material. It is light and can stand up straight by itself. When dabbing it with hands filled with acrylic pigments, she can feel the warm sense of touch. Or, the rents torn in the cardboard and the feeling of coloring are both what the painter is fond of. Occasionally, she still paints in this way.
In addition to cardboard, she started painting on the canvas and displayed her works one by one. This was a big transformation to her creation. When she painted on cardboard in the past, she used to place the paper flat on the floor. Later, when she turned to canvas, she chose to erect it and felt delighted when seeing the pigments flowing down from the canvas. She saw the pigments obeying the law of gravity and wanted to capture that sense of fluidity in her work. She not only painted with her bare hands, without brushes and without drafting; she also often faced her canvas barefoot, letting her hands and body participate in the creation.
From self-analysis, Rokkaku listed three characteristics of her paintings: “plain scribbling,” “the act of getting out something inside me,” and “kid’s drawing.” The kid-like drawing was to practice lines, but she found scribbling to be fun. At first, she painted whatever she saw and then repeatedly practiced painting the subjects in her sketchbook. When she paints, she almost never studies but paints with intuition.
The major themes throughout her painting history are girls and children, and she often portrays them in close-ups. The figures in her painting are often unsmiling. Their eyes may be opened wide and their lips pressed together, or they may look angry. She said her figures went from two sets of extremes: “escaping and chasing” or “looking away and staring.” Most of the main figures in her paintings are walking in large strides. Other common elements in her paintings are repetitive random sketches and animals. Having elongated arms or overly large eyes, bright colors or simplified details, they are all
influenced by Japanese animation culture.