Aya Ito’s works have unique motifs such as zombi, ghost, and ones that are “vulgar, not artistic but childish”. Viewers may be surprised, amused, and imagine that Ito paints them unrestrainedly and spontaneously. Her works, which embrace unusual sense of space, however, are composed through a series of careful process. Ito creates maquette and examines the visual effects by taking many photographs, before she starts painting, and she calls this method “photo-drawing”. Evoking imagination based on daily experiences, she transforms the unexpected things happen in the process into some reality with special density. Her works do not carry stories, and even if they do, the stories do not have certain meanings. Her work’s reality is absurd and unstable yet lively, giving the sensations and seemingly disjointing the conventional views.
Ito states, “I have been attracted by realism rather than imagination, and collage rather than simple realism.” By using different mediums such as sculpture, installation, photography, as well as painting, Ito pursues her own reality and presents a different view of the world.

Concept
This exhibition features about 10 new paintings, mainly with the motif of a woman, as well as sculptures of ceramic, wood and paper clay. On the title of the show, Ito states; “When I was talking to my friend, our conversation turned to a book. The title of the book is ‘Mo-supido de haha wa’ (Mother at Hyperspeed, By Yu Nagashima, published by Bungeishunju), but I said ‘Mo-supido de hahaha’ by mistake. I started picturing a person who is running through very fast saying ‘hahaha’, and couldn’t help imagining about the person. So I wanted to create a work with the phrase.” Ito finds inspirations from the imagination that grows out of accident or coincidence, and for her, the moods of the works are more important than stories.

Artist Biography
Aya Ito was born in Arida-city, Wakayama in 1987. She graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts in 2009, and received M.F.A. from Kyoto City University of Arts, Graduate School of Art in 2011. She lives and works in Wakayama. Ito received Suntory award at in Art Camp in Kunst-Bau 2007 (Suntory Museum, Osaka), Runner-Up Prize in Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2009 (Gyokochika Gallery, Tokyo), the Graduate School Mayer award at Annual Exhibition of Kyoto City University of Arts (Kyoto), and shu uemura Prize and Yuko Hasegawa Judge’s Prize at Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2011 (Gyokochika Gallery, Tokyo). Her major solo exhibitions include “Umaretsuki J” (Art Jam Contemporary, Tokyo, 2009), and the group exhibitions include “Mont Blanc Young Artist Patronage in Japan” (Mont Blanc GINZA, Tokyo, 2009), “VOCA 2010” (The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, 2010), and “RESONANCE” (Suntory Museum, Osaka, 2010), and Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi (2009 and 2011). This is her third solo exhibition with Tomio Koyama Gallery after 2010 and 2011.