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Artist Spotlight : Aya Takano

Whimsical, jelly universe and erotic innocence from the view of a female artist


Content Contributor : Jenn Ngan

Aya Takano (タカノ綾) is a contemporary Japanese artist best known for her involvement with the aesthetics of the Superflat movement and manga art.


Takano’s work is recognized for its use of sexually empowering images of women, animals, and often surreal mythology.


The biggest influence the artist has had has been the god of the living manga, Osamu Tezuka. The fantasy worlds that Tezuka raised in her work, full of adventures, strange places and fantastic animals, made Takano's imagination fly enormously, allowing her to fly towards new experiences, to create new and enriched graphic pieces without the ties of the established.

Aya Takano (artist)


Earth, 2006 by Aya Takano


This infantilization and objectification of the female was seen most heavily in Japan's otaku culture. Japanese female artists like Takano seek to reinvent the otaku culture through a feminine perspective.


Takano in particular is interested in depicting how the future will impact the role of the female heroine in society. Her figures, often androgynous, float through her alternate realities partially clothed or fully nude. Takano denies that she is trying to reveal anything specific about sex, but rather, with the slim bodies, bulbous heads, and large eyes, she is trying to emphasize her figures' temporary suspension from adulthood; the redness on the figures' joints, such as the elbows, knees, and shoulders, is supposed to convey that they are still engaged in the growing process, mentally and physically.

Secrets of the Thousand Years Spiral, 2013 by Aya Takano


Takano’s precision with line, her unique use of colours, and her ability to work quickly, has led to her rising fame and certainly a star in her own right.


Sources:

cooljapan.es / hyperallegic.com

skarstedt.com

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