“When I first started painting in my studio, I was painting just for myself. But when people tell me how happy they feel when they hang my paintings in their homes, it makes me feel happier. I want to share this positive energy, and paintings can just be a form of the existence of energy”
—Ayako RokkakuEmerging from an impressionistic, rainbow-tinged imaginary landscape, a bug-eyed kawaii (cute) girl peeks out expectantly. The wavy hemline of her dress vividly mirrors the organic shapes of her surroundings, resulting in little differentiation between figurative elements and abstract patterns. Rendered with a total of 93 colours, Untitled by the Japanese artist Ayako Rokkaku conjures up a captivating dreamscape of childlike innocence and pure delight.
Born in 1982 in Chiba, Japan, Rokkaku received no formal training in fine art. Yet, the talent of the entirely self-taught artist was instantly recognised a mere year after she began painting in 2002. Rokkaku’s participation at the Geisai fair – a biannual art show founded by Takashi Murakami’s studio Kaikai KiKi to support emerging Japanese artists – resulted in her winning the Illustration Prize in 2003. Three years later, she was awarded the prestigious Akio Goto Prize at the 9th edition of the Geisai fair.
“I don’t feel I’m really painting unless my hands are in direct contact with the paint. It’s more fun that way”
—Ayako Rokkaku
Following her desire to preserve "the impression of pureness and freedom like children’s drawing in [her] works", Rokkaku has adopted a highly intuitive and idiosyncratic approach: in addition to abandoning preliminary sketches, she also insists on painting with her bare hands, smearing dazzling swirls of colour directly with her fingertips to create intricate details and varied textures. This spontaneous, process-oriented approach imbues her works with an unmediated, exuberant energy, which she further relays to audiences through her performance-based live painting sessions. Additionally, through her increasing engagement with printmaking, Rokkaku is able to share the positive energy she embeds in her fairytale landscapes, endearing characters, and delightful colours with a growing base of collectors.