Artist
Artist Statement
Where is the border between “artificial” and “natural”?
I began to contemplate the relationship between human technology and the sublime by the trigger of disastrous nuclear incidents of 3.11. Human beings have not just lived following the natural cycle, we have been trying to strengthen and expand our limited life by armoring ourselves with technologies.
I have attempted to represent organic shape by combining and processing inorganic motifs such as metal and plastic. My expression is of the moment when an inorganic object has an awakening, and depict the shape as “something,” which exists between biotic and abiotic realm in abstract and realistic ways of painting. The technology which expands our physical ability such as A.I. has become a part of our life(body) more naturally, whether physically or morally. But we can’t escape from the uncanny and discomfort of our actual body becoming data-like and being controlled by the machines.
My artwork aims to create a “Binary-Distortion,” which stimulates the viewers to feel going back and forth between life and non-life, digital image and physical space, two-dimension and three-dimension. The detailed technique, in my art, adds physical-realism, which assumes a role as a mediator for communicating the two polar ends.
The boundary of “artificiality” and “nature” is updated by the shift of our current cognition, but the terror of human technological catastrophe inspires me to strive to develop my imagination.
Biography
1985 Born in Chiba, Japan
2008 Tsukuba University, B.F.A. in Art and Design
2010 Tokyo Gakugei University, M.F.A. in Oil painting
2013 Tokyo University of Arts, M.F.A. in Art and Education
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Solo Exhibitions
2022 Interspecies, Mitsukoshi Contemporary, Tokyo
2022 Tectonic Shifts, The Something Machine, New York
2022 Species, Tsutaya Book Gallery Roppongi, Tokyo
2021 Luminous Beings, haku Kyoto, Kyoto
2021 Hyperdimension, mhPROJECTnyc, New York
2020 Artifact, Mitsukoshi Nihombashi, Tokyo
2019 Ai Makita solo exhibition, Chiba bank gallery, Tokyo
2018 Reflect on 10 years- Ai Makita”, Karuizawa New Art Museum, Nagano
2017 Gradation, Gallery Vask, Manila
2017 Moving, Gallery Inage, Chiba
2015 Behave As a Named Existense, Roentgen Kunst Institut von Tsutomu Ikeuchi Gallery AG, Tokyo
2013 13・17, Ai Kowada Gallery, Tokyo
SIGNS OF LIFE”, Isetan Shinjuku, Tokyo
2012 jewels, Gallery Kunimatsu, Tokyo
Group Exhibitions
2023 Echoes from New York, Lurf Museum, Tokyo
2023 The Mind Roams: Abstraction for a New Age, St, Joseph’s University, New York
2023 Art Cake Resident Showcase, Art Cake, New York
2023 Study:Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2023, Osaka
2022 Between Before and After, San Gallery, Tainan
2022 Origins, Doingud Gallery, Metaverse
2021 Out of the Blue, ANA Intercontinental Tokyo, Tokyo
2021 Endless., Tokyo International Gallery, Tokyo
2020 Adventures of F, A-Lab Amagasaki, Hyogo
2020 This is now, ANA Intercontinental Tokyo, Tokyo
2020 Art Cake Online Group Presentation, Art Cake, New York
2019 Self-Portrait as Mirror-Mirror as Self-Portrait, Artinformal, Manila
2019 Assorted chocolates, ANA Inter Continental Tokyo, Tokyo
2018 Shuttlecock" ANA Inter Continental Tokyo, Tokyo
2018 Mumyo to Kashi”, POLA Museum Annex, Tokyo
2017 Silos”, ART3 Gallery, New York
2017 In Organic: Japanese Artist in New York - Curated by Eric Shiner and Miwako Tezuka”, Consulate General of Japan in New York
2016 Chronicle,Chronicle! ”, Creative Center Osaka, Osaka
2015 Speak Soft, Listen Hard ”, Gallery Underground, Manila
RAN-SHO KOH-JUTSU chapterâ…¥ curated by Tsutomu Ikeuchi”, Gallery Ten, Kanazawa
Sou-zou Kaigan INAGE”, Gallery Inage, Chiba
18th. Taro Okamoto Award”, Okamoto Taro Museum, Kanagawa
2014 1st. Terrada Art Award”, T-Art Gallery, Tokyo
HYOH-BYOH KOH-JUTSU chapterâ…¤ curated by Tsutomu Ikeuchi”, Spiral Garden, Tokyo
Summer Art Festival”, Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi, Tokyo
The Future”, Gallery Nichido, Tokyo
2013 TOH-KAI KOH-JUTSU chapterâ…£ curated by Tsutomu Ikeuchi”, Spiral Garden, Tokyo
Graduation Show, Tokyo National University of The Arts, Tokyo
2012 Art Award Next 2012”, Tokyo Art Club, Tokyo
C-DEPOT 2012 Tokyo-Yokohama”, Red Brick Warehouse, Yokohama
2011 Nine Colors”, Seibu Shibuya, Tokyo
Ai Makita and Yoshiharu Makita: Parent and Child Exhibition”, Tokyu Nagano, Nagano
Exhibition C-DEPOT 2011 gravity”, Spiral Garden, Tokyo
Art Fair
2019 Taipei Dangdai, Taipei Nangang District, Taipei
2018 Art Miami, One Herald Plaza, Miami
2018 Art Fair TOKYO2018, Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo
2017 Art Taipei 2017, Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei
2016 Art Taipei 2016, Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei
2015 Infinity Japan Contemporary Art Show, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, Taichu
2014 Art Nagoya 2014, Westin Nagoya Hotel, Nagoya
2013 Art Fair TOKYO2013, Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo
2012 Art Fair TOKYO2012, Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo
Art Taipei 2012, Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei
2011 Art Kyoto 2011, Hotel Monterey Kyoto, Kyoto
Residency ​
2020 Art Cake, New York
2019 Shortlisted for Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam
2019 Varda Artist in Residency, Sausalito
2018 Varda Artist in Residency, Sausalito
2017 Residency Unlimited, New York
Awards
2017 Fellowship grant from Pola Art Foundation
2015 Prize at the 18th. Taro Okamoto Award, Taro Okamoto Museum
2015 Artistic Cultural Award in Chiba city, Chiba city foundation
2014 Prize at the 1st. Terrada Art Award, Warehouse Terrada
2013 Selected for Collection Prize at Graduation Show, Tokyo National University of The Arts
Important Private and Public Collections
Museum of Tokyo National University of Arts
Takahashi collection
Press and Interview
“Dialogue for ART vol.14” Bijutsutecho online https://bijutsutecho.com/magazine/interview/oil/26795
Linda Leuzzi “A fascination with motorcycles becomes art” Long Island Advance https://www.longislandadvance.net/stories/a-fascination-with-motorcycles-becomes-art,90527
Robert Anton Patterson ”Interview: Ai Makita” Leafbox https://www.leafbox.com/interview-ai-makita-2022/ , January 2022
Toru Kitahara ”Drawing A Wonderful Light” PLEASE12 September 2019
Robert Anton Patterson ”Interview: Ai Makita” Leafbox http://leafbox.com/post/182585461040/interview-aimakita,
January 2019
Ronald Mabanag, Christopher Juan “Sublime rage against the machines: Ai Makita” Handpicked by Ron and
Chris: https://handpickedbyronandchris.blogspot.com/2017/01/sublime-rage-against-machines-ai-makita.html,
January 2017
Taisuke Shimanuki “Contemporary Sublime” ART NAVI, October 2013