Article: "Chiho Aoshima at Seattle’s Asian Art Museum"

" SEATTLE — Japanese artist Chiho Aoshima opened “Rebirth of the World,” a large-scale solo exhibition at the Asian Art Museum on May 2.

According to the artist, the works on display are partially inspired by a hopeful vision of a future urban setting, where mankind and nature might coexist in an uneasy balance. “The evolution of human civilization is great; humankind thinks nature precious, but it is difficult for humankind and nature to coexist. I represented these two souls that cannot understand each other through the images of buildings and mountains.”

Aoshima, who is part of Takashi Murakami’s collective Kaikai Kiki, whose members also include Mr. (the subject of another exhibition at the Asian Art Museum last winter), has previously had solo shows at Blum & Poe in Los Angeles (2002), Galerie Perrotin in Paris (2004, 2007), and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2007). She first came to prominence after being included in “Tokyo Girls Bravo” (2004), a group exhibition at Marianne Boesky Gallery inspired by the legendary manga artist Kyoko Okazaki that was curated by Murakami himself.

Although her early career centered on digitally manipulated vector drawings rendered in Adobe Illustrator, which allowed her to maintain careful control over the sinuous curves and organic lines that characterize her lush, detailed landscapes, Aoshima later turned to hand-drawn components incorporated into her large-scale prints that gave her work an additional dimension.

This is the first time that Aoshima’s drawings are being displayed in a museum setting, with a selection of some 35 pieces that depict girls, animals, flower landscapes, insects, oceans, and reptiles. Equally, audiences will be able to catch a glimpse of her foray into video work, undertaken in collaboration with New Zealand-born animator Bruce Ferguson, with whom she previously worked for a piece called City Glow (2005)."