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From Aya Takano's Artist Profile on Perrotin.com

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An established artist, writer, manga creator, and much more, Aya Takano is a contemporary painter focusing on the superflat movement seeking to share her visions of a dreamlike, ideal world where mankind and nature harmonize (Aya, 2025).  One can find her work not only within established galleries around the world, but also within manga books, on t-shirts, and even on other’s skin!  Aya Takano is an artist who has found success in both the world of high fine art as well as commercial success with the general public, something that can be observed by visiting her Instagram account, @takano.aya, and seeing the multitude of likes and reposts of fans across the world who continue to show their support and dedication with tattoos of her work.

Aya Takano was born on December 22nd, 1976 in Saitama, Japan (Dewalles, 2021).  After graduating from Tama Art University in Tokyo, she worked for a time at Nintendo as a designer (Dewalles, 2021).  She is best known for her involvement in the superflat movement, a contemporary art movement pioneered by Takashi Murakami (Favell, 2024).  The movement primarily works by integrating Japanese pop art in a more commercial sense.  Murakami oversees his company, Kaikai Kiki Corporation, with factories all over the world staffed by a large collection of artists (Holzwarth, 2009).  Not only can the movement itself be seen as an East vs West fusion, but also in how the differences between high and low culture are being melded into new ideas that can be enjoyed by everyone (Favell, 2024)  Within his superflat works, Murakami draws inspiration from pop culture, as well as more traditional ukiyo-e art of early Japan (Favell, 2024).  One of the most successful artists trained under Murakami is Aya Takano, who continues the trend of being inspired by not only pop culture influences such as anime and it's doll-like characters, but also a love for Edo Period art and impressionism (Hertz, 2002) (Aya, 2025).  A unique trait of Takano’s work is her figures, thin, almost child-like, girls that are typically presented in revealing clothing or positions (Mullins, 2008).  This combination of viewers' preconceived innocence of her art style and its more mature, thought-provoking subjects is what leads many online to be drawn in and captured by her pieces.

An important piece of context for understanding Takano’s art is the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster of 2011.  In March of that year, an earthquake caused a massive tsunami to hit the coasts of Japan, resulting in a nuclear accident in Fukushima (Aya, 2025).  Throughout the gallery, the work presented aims to show the contrast and evolution of Takano’s work from before, soon after, and today.  After the event, the artist has spoken about the profound change it had within her life.  Takano began to grow a dislike for unnatural things, eventually leading away from the plastic-based acrylic paints and back towards oil painting (Dewalles, 2021).  Even aspects such as her tastes in fashion and food had changed trajectory after Fukushima (Dewalles, 2021).

Aya Takano describes her works as wanting to present a particular world for the viewers, one focused around coexistence between all living things (Perrotin, 2023).  Many of her pieces reflect her experiences and “visions” as she describes them of places and interactions that she would call akin to “heaven” (Perrotin, 2023).  Her work rarely, if ever depicts any brazen violence, speaking towards her personal hope of peace.  It can also be observed that while her work always had a vivid color palette, as her relationship with nature deepened and time helped to heal the wounds left of Fukushima, her artwork begins to brighten and shift towards presenting her current focus in sharing her “heaven” to the world (Aya, 2025) (Perrotin, 2023).

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Aya Takano is an artist who cares deeply for our natural world and mankind's place within that world. This exhibition will show an overview of Aya Takano's paintings throughout her life, comparing and contrasting her artwork after the pivotal moment that was the 2011 Fukushima Disaster. Works Pre-Fukushima highlight a fascination and admiration for cities and other manmade objects. Viewers will be able to find how Takano's work Post-Fukushima began to not only change to using oils over acrylics, but also its shift in focus from manmade subjects to nature instead. While her more recent works are still influenced by Fukushima and begin to reintroduce more unnatural depictions such as cities, Takano's work continues to promote her beliefs in coexistence with the natural world (Aya 2025).

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This piece was created more than a decade after the Fukushima Disaster (Aya 2025). While the work uses a convenience store as its setting, drawing parallels to the artists 2006 work, "Convenience Store", the focus of this work guides viewers to the interaction of its figures over the space itself. When compared to "Convenience Store", not only is this piece brighter through its use of color, but also emits a warmer atmosphere when compared the bundled up figures seen in 2006. Not only this, but the two women are helping each other by lighting one another's cigarettes. The piece introduces the results of the artist being given time after Fukushima towards developing a more hopeful message throughout her pieces. Instead of focusing on the sobering reality of our own fragility and cosmic insignificance, we focus more on our own interactions in working towards a peaceful world. "A Drugstore, Light" and "Convenience Store" may seem incredibly similar at first glance, but viewers will be able to notice the developmental mile markers between the two.

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Administering Traditional Medicine for a Friend - 2024

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Administering Traditional Medicine for a Friend - 2024

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This piece is showing two friends as one practices a traditional form of medicine, acupuncture. Traditional medicine is often seen as having no scientific backing by many within the western world. With the artist's preference for natural solutions, she finds herself frustrated at the concept of traditional medicine being outlawed or illegal. Takano argues that preserving tradition, and freely being allowed to incorporate similar methods would do much for creating her ideal world (Takano 2025). The idea that western medicine is the sole authority pushes more naturalistic traditions into being lost. Dividing solutions to categories of simply right or wrong is the antithesis of the coexistence pursued by the artist. Despite the artist's frustrations, the figures depicted are seen smiling and enjoying their time together, accompanied by Takano's bright colors, still painted in oil instead of acrylic, that she is more famously known for today.

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This piece was created shortly after the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster of 2011. From here, you can see Takano transition almost exclusively switch to using oil paints over acrylics. As previously mentioned, this decision was made consciously, as the disaster left a profound change within Aya Takano, solidifying a deep appreciation for nature, and a distaste for the unnatural and synesthetic nature of acrylics and other modern products (Dewalles 2021). This piece also contains no city structures, and takes place on a blinding bright background of a peach. With a flock of birds and the more muted, simple colors used, it creates an atmosphere of melancholy or almost morning. Contrasting with the rest of the piece, the floating figure is covered in brightly colored floral patterns and is the only figure to not be positioned straight on. This piece is focusing much more on the people within it, more than the longing, idealization for the city previously portrayed in Takano's work.

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This piece is one of the artist earlier works, a fact evident by not only the darker color palette, but also its setting of a convenience store likely within in a city. It was also created in a time where Aya Takano primarily used acrylic paints instead of oil paints as she is now more known for using today (Aya 2025). From the two figures sitting next to each other to the group of friends seemingly looking towards the viewer, early hints towards community and coexistence can be seen, especially when considering the purpose of convenience stores within modern cityscapes. Despite its flat style, (similar to the entire superflat movement) the space created that stretches all the way to the back of the store is deepened. The inclusion of this piece is also for its conversation sparked when compared to a more recent piece with similar setting, "A Drugstore, Light" found in the "Recent Work" section of the exhibition.

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Floating in a Field of Primitive Life - 2014

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Floating in a Field of Primitive Life - 2014

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While not directly following Fukushima, this piece continues to portray Takano's theme of nature and the way we as people interact with it. The title, "Floating in a Field of Primitive Life" keys viewers in to the context (Aya 2025). That of our figure being surrounded by amorphous beings. Perhaps single-celled organisms, bacteria, or primitive sea life, the creatures shown all lack the typical structures seen in most mammals such as their eyes, mouth, etc. The figure blends in to this crowd, laying a claim that humbles viewers. In this field of primitive life, is the figure herself included? It is this gentle understanding and value of even the smallest parts of nature that attempts to remind humans of how little they differ from any other organism within nature. This scene is in stark contrast to those of the Pre-Fukushima. A scene completely filled with an abstraction of nature, with no modern structures anywhere to be seen.

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This piece provides a strong bridge between Aya Takano's Post-Fukushima works and the direction of her more recent art. Similar to, "Floating in a Field of Primitive Life" this piece shows an abstraction of nature, though this time of different fish and forms of other marine life (Takano 2025). Notably, the figure is much more obscured within the scene, almost getting lost in the sea of fish. The fish also appear to be smiling, painted in bright colors, an artistic decision the artist seems to follow for work following this piece. "In the Midst of Fertility" creates an atmosphere of coexistence and hope through it's use of color, as well as considering an island nation such as Japan's relationship with marine life and their culinary habits. The use of "Fertility" within the title also suggests the concept of birth and the natural cycle all life follows. The figure has fully integrated with nature.

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This piece is one that clearly expresses the artist's appreciation for nature and human's place within it. The joy seen of our figure, covered in mud, laughing and smiling with a dog and other wildlife within rice paddies. The artist has experience in growing her own food and speaks on the small moments of those her senior making small talk and laughing while farming themselves (Takano 2025). Farming itself can be seen as an integral form of coexistence between humans and nature. From an emerging artist seeking the possibilities of large cities, to the major change in perspective caused by Fukushima, this piece shows that forms of great joy can come from the most common of practices within nature. This piece echoes previous works by being surrounded by other forms of nature, but also marks itself as part of a new arc within Aya Takano's artistic journey towards remaining hopeful that her idea world is still possible.

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Summoning Her Owls, She Looked Yonder.  The Buildings Shone. - 2007

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Summoning Her Owls, She Looked Yonder.  The Buildings Shone. - 2007

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This piece continues the artist's use of acrylic paints at the time, as well as focusing on the their relationship with cities. At this point, before the Fukushima Disaster, Takano carried a deep fascination and appreciation of manmade technology Aya 2025). This piece depicts a colorful city in the distant background of its setting. The city itself surrounded by wind turbines, showing even an early consideration of sustainability with technology and nature. The Owls seemingly guiding our figure towards the horizon. Viewers will be able to notice the youthful optimism that many young adults feel towards large cities and the future. Despite its idealization of the city, the piece still depicts a strong relationship between its figures and animals, a theme that will prevail into recent times due to its relation to the natural world.

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This is one of the few pieces by Aya Takano to take place inside rather than outside. The figure seemingly longing for something, represented by the angelic form and bright lights of the outside. Despite the numerous toys and comforts of the indoors, they are left feeling incredibly mundane when compared to the surreal depictions taking place outside the window. Viewers can again notice portrayals of modern, manmade structures being part of the "Light" she is seeking. Seeing city structures being used once again as a representation of enlightenment, a sentiment that will dramatically shift moving towards the next section of artworks following soon after Fukushima. It can also be noticed that the figure and many objects within the house are floating, casting shadows on the floor. Parallels can then be drawn comparing the slight floating to the extreme flight and fantastical nature of the window, perhaps hinting towards a day dream (Aya 2025).