Kaikai Kiki Gallery is pleased to present “LONGER THAN THE MYTH OF OUR GALAXY alternative future”, AYA TAKANO’s first solo exhibition at Kaikai Kiki in 10 years, starting November 2, 2024.
Event Details
Born in Saitama Prefecture, AYA is a painter, manga artist, science fiction enthusiast, and environmental activist. She has been fascinated by science, science fiction, and the supernatural world from an early age through her father’s books. Since the 1990s she has been presenting her work, which can be characterized for its unique eroticism portrayed against the backdrop of manga and science fiction worldviews, in Japan and abroad alike.
After the Great Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami of March, 2011 (3.11), AYA gained a deeper understanding of rural areas and nature, and abundant nature and daylight began to appear more frequently in her paintings, which previously had been dominated by cities, nightscapes, and moonlight. Furthermore, she switched her painting materials from acrylics to oil paints out of concern for the environment. She has come to depict the fundamental world of humanity with greater mythical beauty and scale.
In AYA’s solo exhibition, “May All Things Melt into the Ocean of Bliss”, held in March 2014 at Kaikai Kiki Gallery, she presented her latest works that reflected the changes in her perspective since 3.11. This solo exhibition is the first by AYA TAKANO to be held at Kaikai Kiki Gallery since, after 10 years and 8 months.
The exhibition title, “Longer than the Myth of the Galaxy”, is a phrase from a book by Emma Yukifune, for whom AYA has illustrated a book cover, and the subtitle, “alternative future”, is the theme of the exhibition. New oil paintings will be presented in a circle in the gallery space, and a diorama model, planned and executed by AYA for this exhibition, will also be on display.
Through AYA’s works, visitors are invited to experience a mythical worldview that the past, present, future, and various cultures weave together in resonance beyond their frameworks.
Starting around the midpoint of the exhibition, from November 15, the first-ever exhibition curated by AYA TAKANO will also be held at Hidari Zingaro, a gallery located on the 3rd floor of Nakano Broadway. A total of 13 artists selected by AYA will participate in the exhibition, with their works also themed around “alternative future”. We hope you will visit and enjoy both of the exhibitions.
Artist message
I believe there is no future in the kind of future that extends from the present—one filled with sleek machines, skyscrapers, highways, asphalt, and AI. This shiny image of the future has been dreamed of for over 100 years, and it has been realized. Cities all over the world are taking on this form. Every time I visit different countries after being away for some time, I feel how they are all increasingly becoming like this.
But it hasn’t turned out to be a good thing at all.
I believe that those who have brought these cities to life earlier understand it better. Living beings are killed, forests, mountains, and indigenous cultures are destroyed and pushed aside, the environment is full of waste, and people’s spirits are deteriorating. There is no way this could continue, yet a clear vision of an alternative future has long been absent.
I want to create an image of a new future that is organic, like a return to the ancient past.
I would like to see a future that is like the Jōmon period, where there is little conflict and people decorate their bodies with tattoos; where dance, music, and art are more magical and powerful; where people eat mushrooms and cacti, hold festivals, respect other living things, and live together in harmony!
In fact, I feel that more and more people are becoming like that.
The exhibition will be divided into two rooms: one will be “a room depicting the present, where capitalism dominates,” and the other will be “a room with paintings that depict the ideal future.”
This is the future that I dream of, and I hope that each one of us will vividly dream of our own original alternative future and strive toward it.
May everyone choose a healthy and pleasant future, just as the Native Americans would when they thought about their descendants seven generations in the future!
“The title is taken from a phrase in the beautiful book Breakfast for Lovers on Earth by Emma Yukifune, whose cover art I had the pleasure of painting.
AYA TAKANO
AYA TAKANO
Solo Exhibitions
2023 “NEW MYTH” Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon（Lyon, France）
2022 “thank you world, you now look a little bit like a wonderland” Perrotin（Shanghai, China）
2021 “beginning, liminal, ego” Perrotin（Hong Kong, China）
2020 “Let’s make the universe a better place” Perrotin（Seoul, Korea）
2019 “UNIO MYSTICA” Perrotin（New York, USA）
2017 “Synesthesia” Pavillon Bosio (Monaco)
“The Jelly Civilization Chronicle” Perrotin（Paris, France）
2015 “The Ocean Inside, The Flowers Inside” Johyun Gallery (Busan, South Korea)
2014 “May All Things Dissolve in the Ocean of Bliss” Kaikai Kiki Gallery (Tokyo, Japan)
2012 “Heaven Is Inside Of You” Perrotin（Hong Kong, China）
“To Lose Is To Gain” （Paris, France）
2011 “Stars, flowers and honeynight” Sieboldhuis (Leiden, Netherlands)
2010 “The Universe Portal” Kaikai Kiki Gallery Taipei (Taipei, Taiwan)
“Artiste du New Pop SWR3 2010” Museum Frieder Burda (Baden-Baden, Germany)
2009 “Reintegrating Worlds” Skarstedt Gallery (New York, USA)
2008 “Toward Eternity” Perrotin（Paris, France）
2007 “Tradition and modernity” Museo Miró（Barcelona, Spain）
“Wild dogs, hawks, owls, cats, a landfill the size of 44 and a half Tokyo Domes, the stratosphere” Perrotin（Florida, USA）
2006 “AYA TAKANO” Musée d’Art Contemporain (Lyon, France)
“City Dog” Parco Museum (Tokyo, Japan); Parco Gallery (Nagoya, Japan)
2005 “The Far Reaches of The Universe, My Garden” Blum & Poe Gallery (California, USA)
2004 Aya Takano, a web project for Digital Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, USA)
Naoki Takizawa for Issey Miyake, 2004-5 Autumn Winter Collection, Paris, Tokyo (collaboration)
2003 Perrotin（Paris, France）
Naoki Takizawa for Issey Miyake, Tokyo, Japan (collaboration)
2002 “Space Ship EE” Nano Galerie (Paris, France)
2000 “Hot Banana Fudge” NADiff（Tokyo, Japan)
1997 “SHU★WA★KIMASERI” shop33（Tokyo, Japan）
Group Exhibitions
2022 “Roppongi Art Night 2022” Kaikai Kiki Gallery（Tokyo, Japan）
“HEAD IN THE CLOUDS” Perrotin (Tokyo, Japan)
2021 “2021 Kaikai Kiki Autumn Show” Kaikai Kiki Gallery (Tokyo, Japan)
“HEALING x HEALING” Kaikai Kiki Gallery (Tokyo, Japan)
“Healing” Perrotin (Shanghai, China)
2020 “Healing” Perrotin (Paris, France)
“Healing” Perrotin (Seoul, Korea)
2018 “MANGASIA: WONDERLANDS OF ASIAN COMICS” Villa Reale（Monza, Italy）
2017 “Japanorama. New vision on art since 1970”Centre Pompidou-Metz（Lorraine, France）
“MANGASIA: WONDERLANDS OF ASIAN COMICS”Palazzo delle Esposizioni（Rome, Italy）
2015 “Animamix Biennale” Daegu Museum (Daegu, South Korea)
2004 “T-JUNCTION” Perrotin (Paris, France)
Exhibition Overview
AYA TAKANO Solo Exhibition “LONGER THAN THE MYTH OF OUR GALAXY alternative future”
November 2 (Sat.) ｰ November 30 (Sat.), 2024
Opening hours: 11:00 ｰ 19:00
Closed: Sundays and Mondays, Public Holidays
Location: Kaikai Kiki Gallery
〒106-0046
Crest Building B1F, 2-3-30 Motoazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo
https://en.gallery-kaikaikiki.com/
Instagram: @kaikaikikigallery
Related Exhibition
AYA TAKANO Curation Exhibition
November 15 (Fri.) – November 26 (Tue.), 2024
Artist: Moyoco Anno, Anda Gyoza Kougei-bu, BeBe, FAFI, Lupe fiasco, Rieko Kasahara, Makiko Kudo, Yu Maeda, Kenji Sato, Yuki Sasameya, Koki Terakado, usagi, 50noen (alphabetical order)
Opening hours: 12:00 ｰ 19:00
Closed: Mondays
Location: Hidari Zingaro
〒164-0001 Nakano Broadway 3F, 5-52-15 Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo
https://zingarokk.com/gallery/hidarizingaro/
Instagram: @hidarizingaro
