Artist Presentation: Chiho Aoshima
- Courtney Jenkins
- May 1, 2021
- 3 min read
The digital artist Chiho Aoshima is part of an artistic movement called “Superflat.” The movement originated with the artist Takashi Murakami, who took interest in Aoshima’s work after she started working for his company, Kaikai Kiki. Murakami asked Aoshima to join a group exhibition that featured female artists and, ever since then, Murakami has continued to support Aoshima’s growing career.
Aoshima’s artworks are often likened to works from artists like Henry Darger, who worked with collages, but they mostly pull together inspiration from anime, manga, and even ukiyo-e, which was a genre of art consisting mostly of traditional Japanese woodblock prints and paintings. Aoshima also enjoys walking through graveyards, saying that they are like little oases in the concrete jungle of Tokyo where she grew up. Because of the sources from which Aoshima often finds inspiration, many of her characters have a cute aesthetic, while also maintaining an unsettling feeling to them. Aoshima creates most of her art using Adobe Illustrator, making the subjects of the works in the program, printing them out, arranging them, then putting together the final piece in the program. This allows Aoshima to have more control over each individual part of the total composition, while also making it easier for her to visualize the final project, something that she sometimes struggles with due to her lack of a formal education in the fine arts. However, some of her artwork, like It’s Your Friendly UFO!, are created using colored pencils and watercolor.
It’s Your Friendly UFO!, 2009, Chiho Aoshima, Japanese, B. 1974, Color on Japanese Rice Paper, 27 9/16 × 24 in., Seattle Art Museum
In her exhibit, “Rebirth of the World,” which was made after the 2011 Tokohu earthquake and tsunami devastated parts of Japan, Aoshima focuses more on rebirth in the face of destruction. For example, works like Takaamanohara, an animated mural, and City Glow illustrate this concept in a playful yet surreal way. Another work that shares this eerie quality is Red Eyed Tribe, which was originally designed for a fashion show by the Issey Miyake designer, Naoki Takizawa. The work was later enlarged to be put in Murakami’s “Superflat” exhibit. These works each showcase Aoshima’s skills and imagination. The worlds that she creates hold an otherworldly beauty that allows the viewer to reflect on their own surroundings.
Takaamanohara, 2015, Chiho Aoshima, Japanese, B. 1974, Animated Digital Mural, 25 x 5 m., Seattle Asian Art Museum
City Glow, 2005, Chiho Aoshima, Japanese, B. 1974, Chromogenic Print, 66 15/16 × 66 15/16 in., Courtesy Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/Galerie Perrotin
Red Eyed Tribe, 2000, Chiho Aoshima, Japanese, B. 1974, Digital Inkjet Print, 19 5/8 X 138 in., Seattle Art Museum, Gift of the Contemporary Art Project, Seattle, 2002.6.
Chiho Aoshima has been a highly influential digital artist. Despite having a degree in Economics from Hosei University and lacking formal training in the arts, Aoshima’s work holds the viewers’ attention in a hauntingly elegant manner. She will continue to inspire other artists in the Superflat art movement with the flat landscapes and sublime atmospheres that she creates from her extremely vivid imagination.
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