Ai Makita(b.1985) is known for her method of working which involves taking digital photos of metal machinery from various different angles and then combining those images together using thePhotoshop application on a PC screen. The results are complexly structured two dimensional visual world carrying a thick mood of science fiction. Throughout her career as an artist, Makita has been interested in the idea of blurring the boundaries between hard inorganic objects and soft organic life forms. The idea reflects Makita's hypothetical thinking that life may by nature be social from its origin and that it needs to propagate as part of itself the hard armor for self-protection in order to cope with the outer world.

"Cosmic Specimens" is the theme of this show. The presented paintings were created by following the same method that Makita has been using for a long time. She created various imaginary cosmic life forms in the virtual visual field of a computer screen, which then she transplanted on the canvas using the traditional oil painting technique, thereby transfiguring the images that existed in a virtual world of the computer into the tactile beings of the paintings. Each work represents an image of a cosmic life and is encased in a frame designed to resemble a specimen box. The paintings set in the frames are indeed the floating fragments of the cosmos born out of Makita's rich imagination.

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Ai MAKITA

Born in Chiba in 1985, Tokyo Art University, M.A in 2013.Her major solo shows include:“behave As a Named Existence” Rontgen Kunst Institut von Tsutomu Ikeuchi Gallery AG,(Tokyo 2015 ), “13・17”AI KOWADA GALLERY(Tokyo 2013),Other important exhibitions are: "ART TAIPEI", Taipei World Trade Center(Taipei 2012).

Awards-Selected
2015 Prize at 18th.Taro Okamoto Award, Taro Okamoto Museum
2014 Prize at the 1st. Terrada Art Award, Warehouse Terrada

Collections
Museum of Tokyo Art University
Takahashi Collection