AYA TAKANO'S World Comes to Los Angeles

AYA TAKANO’S “how far how deep we can go" exhibition at Perrotin in LA invites visitors into a mystical world which offers an escape and hope for a brighter existence.

AYA TAKANO 地球上のすべての生物のスピリット  | the spirit of all life on earth, 2025. 130.3 x 162 x 3 cm | 51 5/16 x 63 3/4 x 1 3/16 inches. Oil on canvas. ©2025 AYA TAKANO/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Perrotin.

interview by Poppy Baring

Inspired by all art forms from Expressionism to the erotic art of Japan's Edo period, from manga artists such as Osamu Tezuka to Gustav Klimt, AYA TAKANO has been creating her own intimate fantasy since the age of three. Born in Japan in 1976, the painter, illustrator, and highly recognised Superflat artist welcomes LA residents to her new exhibition titled “how far how deep we can go”.

TAKANO presents otherworldly nymph-like characters that are extraterrestrial and yet still connected to and reflective of our reality. Drawing from the past and thinking to the future, she creates a limitless existence where time, gender, and age are undefined. Through various mediums, the Japanese artist investigates our inherent consciousness, exploring what it means to be marked by the past and connected to all life that occurred before us and will exist after us. Held in LA, home to spiritual seekers as well as recent environmental catastrophe, the exhibition offers a universe where all souls prosper as equals, a space where compassion prevails. In this interview, TAKANO provides insight into her worldview and her day-to-day life, asking visitors to look inwards and reconnect with the “radiance of all life.”

POPPY BARING: To start, how did the concept for “how deep how far we can go” begin? Was there a specific inspiration that made you want to investigate ancestral consciousness and speculative ecology?

AYA TAKANO: As I deepen my thoughts on the mysteries of the universe and life forms, as well as the mystery of consciousness—which I am exploring as the theme of my life—I came to feel that I want to depict a journey of fusion beneath the collective unconscious.

Los Angeles has a spiritual culture, and because [of] sad events such as wildfires, I thought it might be an ideal place to depict a journey of the heart.

I believe that each of us should travel within ourselves and create our own mythology. Personally, I hope for the creation of a mythology of coexistence, compassion, and bliss— something that breaks away from capitalism. I wanted to make it into an exhibition that encourages such a direction.

BARING: Also relating to the exhibition title, what does ‘depth’ mean to you, not just spiritually but also in terms of making, presenting and reacting to art?

TAKANO: I believe that the spiritual is fundamental to everything — to city-making, music, clothing, food, lifestyle, behaviour, love, education, and politics. It is the origin of all things.

"Depth" has a spiritual meaning.

BARING: Your work depicts an interconnected and harmonious mystical world, what’s it like bouncing between that world and reality?

TAKANO: An interconnected and harmonious mystical world is something that is happening within communities of non-human living beings.

Recent studies show that trees and fungi in forests actively communicate and help each other. Of course, there are cunning plants and there are also plants with wisdom. There are cows that give milk to wild foxes, and cows that don’t. But humans take far too much, always one-sidedly. I hope we head toward coexistence, and I believe it is possible.

BARING: Would you say you always exist in both worlds or are the barriers between them somewhat distinct?

TAKANO: I believe that in the unconsciousness of every person, in the truly deep part, inside the body, there is wisdom.

AYA TAKANO アフリカ、牛と一体化する生活を送る子  | in africa, a person lives a life being one with a cow, 2025. 80 x 100 x 2.5 cm | 31 1/2 x 39 3/8 x 1 inches. Oil on canvas. ©2025 AYA TAKANO/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Perrotin.

BARING: You draw from the past and think a lot about the future, can you think of key ways that the present influences you? How does your day-to-day life feed into your imagination and practice?

TAKANO: I believe that everything is truly contained in the present. Only the present creates the future. I want to live the present with all the strength I can give.

I spend my daily life for the exploration of the secrets of the universe. That does not only mean reading books, thinking, or meditating, but I believe that all of my actions deeply affect both my work and my life, so I value taking care of things like cleaning, cooking, and staying physically active on my own.

BARING: How has living in Japan influenced your practice?

TAKANO: Growing up surrounded by manga, anime, characters, and science fiction has had a strong influence on my art style. At the same time, I am deeply interested in Japan’s ancient culture that has continued for over ten thousand years, as well as the wisdom embedded in Budo (Japanese martial arts), Butoh (Japanese dance), and music. These elements have also profoundly influenced me.

BARING: Can you walk us through a typical day in your studio? How do your pieces begin?

TAKANO: Taking care of my cat, looking after my boyfriend (who is a manga artist and insanely busy, so he can’t do much himself), cleaning, doing daily necessary shopping, hiking in the mountains, visiting the beach, reading books, and painting — these are the things I do.

My artwork is born out of these everyday activities.

BARING: Many of the characters in your work appear suspended between worlds—child and adult, earthy and celestial—all living in an undefined time. What attracts you to these in-between states?

TAKANO: They are undifferentiated spiritual beings living deep within all existence. I believe such beings exist within us, and I depict them in my work.

BARING: Your work presents an ideal existence and provides hope for that, how and why do you think your work remains positive and hopeful?

TAKANO: I have a strong hope that everyone can coexist in harmony in a better world. Because of that, I believe I must keep expressing hope and freedom in my work.

BARING: Finally, there is an element of, particularly female, teenage nostalgia. What role does femininity play in your work and why do you think this is a recurring component?

TAKANO: Since the advent of written records in modern civilizations, femininity has been oppressed in most cultures. However, I feel that the root of life itself lies in the feminine, especially as some studies say the Y chromosome is gradually disappearing.

I believe that the right-brain, unconscious world will emerge more strongly than the logical, authoritative, left-brain world in the future. The spirituality of teenage, or even earlier childhood, is not merely nostalgia but a pathway to a better future.


‘how far how deep we can go' is on view through August 29th 2025 at the Perrotin Gallery, 5036 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019.

AYA TAKANO 地球上の全植物の精  | the spirit of all plants on earth, 2025112 x 145 x 3 cm | 44 1/8 x 57 1/16 x 1 3/16 inches. Oil on canvas. ©2025 AYA TAKANO/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Perrotin.

Ayako Rokkaku: The Spirit Of The Artist

 
 

interview by AUTRE
photographs by Roman Maerz. Courtesy of the artist and KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin, London, Seoul and Vienna.

The large, expressive eyes peering out from Ayako Rokkaku’s paintings seem to mirror the viewer, as her work inevitably evokes a sense of wonder and joy that beckons the gaze. The self-taught artist paints using her bare fingers and hands to layer the figurative and the abstract in clouds of color, resulting in dynamic, imaginative imagery that draws from impressionism, abstract expressionism, and the kawaii aesthetic of Japanese manga. We spoke with Rokkaku about her inspirations, her practice, childhood, and her new works which will be shown at Frieze LA, presented by König Galerie.

As a self-taught artist, when did you realize that working with your fingers and hands helped you produce your painterly, impressionistic visions on canvas? 

When I was 20 years old and when I hadn't got my style yet, I participated in an event in Tokyo for amateur artists for the first time. I did live painting there. I prepared some materials (brush, pen, crayon, paper, etc) and tried some methods of painting. I was painting on the used cardboard on the floor with acrylic paint on my hand and it came to me. I felt that I was able to leave a trace of something like an improvisational and primitive impulse on the cardboard and it fit me well.

Your paintings are fully realized and mature, but there is a very childlike freedom to them. Did you paint when you were a child and what did you paint or draw? 

I liked drawing when I was a child, and I remember I liked putting colors more.

It feels fun when the paper gets vivid and lively as I put more colors on it. But it was after I grew up when I started to look carefully and think more about children’s drawing. I’m trying to keep the impression of pureness and freedom like children’s drawing in my works.

Who are some Japanese or international artists that inspired you growing up?

I’m impressed by Cy Twombly, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning. I also like Monet, Klee, Matisse, etc…

There has been a tradition of artists painting as performance. For instance, Yves Klein — is there a particular difference between painting in front of a crowd versus the solitary environment of a studio? 

I'm happy to be able to share the time and process when a painting is born, not only a finished work with the people there. It makes me feel like I'm drawing with the energy of the people there. And it is fun for me, by continuing to paint without thinking too much and without fear of failure in a limited time, sometimes unexpected techniques and motifs are born. On the other hand, when painting alone in the studio, it feels like playing — catching the energy ball between the canvas and myself.

Do you see yourself following in a similar trajectory as the Superflat artists of post-war Japan, or do you categorize your work in a totally separate arena? 

I've never been conscious about it. Maybe I’m in the trajectory, but personally, I don’t feel I’m in any group.

 
 

What have artists like Takashi Murakami taught you about painting. Is there a particular lesson that sticks with you? 

When I was 24 years old, Takashi Murakami invited me to join the Kaikaikiki booth in the Volta art fair in Basel. At that time he taught me that just liking painting is not enough to survive in the contemporary art world, and how he is fighting so hard with keeping the spirit of the artist. He never taught me about any technical things, but without him I might not have chosen to continue as an artist.

Do you see your work changing over the years—becoming more or less impressionistic, or abstract, or have the colors evolved?

It is getting less improvised, part graffiti-like, and the number of colors and layers has been increasing. Before, concrete figures such as girls and abstract parts were often more clearly separated. Nowadays, sometimes there is a girl behind the abstract layer, or the skirt or hair are directly continuing to the flow of clouds, so the border between abstract and object is becoming less. I think that the intention to create upward and free energy in the works has not changed.

How has Japanese anime and manga inspired your work? You have recurring symbols, like clouds and childlike figures. What do these figures represent?

It was not uncommon that anime, manga, and something cute (kawaii in Japanese) were more or less blended into daily life throughout my childhood in Japan. Cute characters, or characters with a strong and gentle heart, can be close to any person's heart. We can synchronize with them and they will lead to various new worlds. I maybe want to make the girl, the clouds, or abstract shapes as a way of expanding the imagination.

You also make sculpture. Is there a different approach that you take with the three-dimensional? 

I have less experience in sculpture than in painting, but like my painting, I don't make a plan for what it will be in the beginning. It´s like the shape is gradually decided while I enjoy the feeling of the material, such as wool, cray etc, and searching for a wired but cute, and interesting shape.

What do you think is the most understood thing about Japanese artists from an international perspective? 

I’m not sure. A tendency to cherish subtle emotions, atmosphere, and transitions?

Has the pandemic changed the way you make art or think about art?

It hasn’t changed, but re-recognized, it is important for me that people can see and feel the art works directly. 

As a young, creative person—with all the political and climate uncertainty in the world—does the anxiety of the zeitgeist creep into your work at all? 

I don’t use specific political or climate issues directly as my concept, but I believe in any age, childlike pureness or the kinds of questions we have as children, are necessary for keeping ourselves together psychologically. I hope my work serves as a reminder of that.

Your new series represented at Frieze, can you talk about them a little bit - is there a specific correlation or connection between them? 

I will show six paintings that are continuing to each other. There are girls, each are in the different layers — one is in the very front, or one is almost hiding behind clouds, or between. And also, each color is in different motifs in the other canvas, so object and abstract changes in different canvas. So, people may get a feeling of floating in the clouds in the layer outside of canvas.

What do contemporary Japanese artists think of Los Angeles? 

I like the city where I can easily go walking or take a bicycle around small streets, Los Angeles is so huge for me! But also it is nice to get inspired by its vastness of scale.