Finding her voice

Aiko moves adeptly from the street to the gallery

By Eleanor Whitney
Published: January 29th, 2009 | 11:20am

Brooklyn-based artist Aiko has been turning heads with her bright, bold works of art that mix Japanese pop-culture and classic western pinup-style imagery with a distinctive Street Art informed aesthetic. First gaining notoriety from her participation in the legendary Street Art collective Faile, Aiko has struck out on her own and developed her personal style with eye-catching stenciled and silk-screened pieces. As Street Art gains popularity globally, Aiko is a driving force with a unique style to watch.

Aiko grew up in Tokyo, Japan in the Shinjuku cultural district, a center for Japanese film, art, theater, and music. Though she was involved in underground artistic culture in Tokyo, she was ready to move on when she finished college. She arrived in New York City in 1996 speaking little English and feeling like a stranger. Street Art gave her a medium through which to engage with the city and carve out a home there. She began to create pieces with friends, including those with whom she would form the collective Faile. She explains, “I think Street Art made me feel like I was part of New York City. I didn’t imagine I would be a painter or a Street Artist when I arrived.” Though she earned a Master’s Degree in Media Studies from the New School, Aiko feels that working with her friends on the street was her real education.

Aiko explained that working on the street was an improvisation and collaboration with the environment; for example, she showed a photograph she took of a wheat pasted self-portrait that a viewer had written over “I’m not boy candy,” adding a their own layer of meaning to the work.

She has spent the past few years been concentrating on building her solo career. Her new focus is on using a variety of mediums such as painting, film, and installation to dominate the gallery space. While she mostly makes work for a gallery audience, she still incorporates elements from the street like signs, textures, noise, and language into her art. She is excited by the possibilities being a solo artist offers and wants to explore a greater range of mediums. “I feel like I am riding a motorcycle really fast,” she explained, “Before I felt like I was in the back of a big station wagon, playing in a big circus. Now it’s more challenging. The guys always used to talk to people, now I have to use my voice.”

In finding her voice as an individual artist, Aiko has not forgone collaboration. In the spring of 2008, she and graffiti legend Lady Pink collaborated on the “Brick Ladies of NYC” exhibition at Ad Hoc Art gallery in Brooklyn. She has also worked with the Younity collective, which promotes female graffiti and street artists. In addition, she has been lecturing on the history of graffiti and Street Art with documentary photographer Martha Cooper, who’s 1984 book, Subway Art, remains the go-to resource for information about the New York graffiti scene in the early ‘80s.

Much of her activities are related to promoting and supporting other women in the scene, which continues to be male dominated. “I feel like we should take advantage of the fact we are female,” Aiko reflected, “We have great things to tell people.” Aiko recalled the challenges creating art on the street with a group of men posed for her. “Boys don’t have to make up and go bombing, boys don’t care,” she pointed out. She expressed concern over the toxicity of materials like spray paint and joked about wanting to keep her nails clean. Laughing, she also recalled pleading with her male friends about needing to pee while she kept an eye out for cops, but being ignored because men can “hold it” longer. She also notes that the street environment has changed and it is currently more difficult to create work in illegal locations.

Differences between male and female Street Artists aside, Aiko is very encouraging to young women who aspire to be artists. She urges them to have confidence in themselves and their vision. She speaks from her own experience, saying, “I do or die. Don’t be afraid. I was just another girl in Japan. I was longing to be an artist. I wasn’t afraid to jump in an airplane, come to New York, and see what’s happening.”

Aiko shows at the Joshua Liner Gallery in New York City in April 2009.