Jan van der Togt Museum, Amstelveen
June 8 – August 25, 2019
In collaboration with Gallery Delaive Jan van der Togt Museum presents the exhibition “Fumble in Colors, Small Discoveries” by the Japanese artist Ayako Rokkaku. In July, Rokkaku will move her studio to the museum hall, giving children the opportunity to paint with her. Ayako Rokkaku (b. 1982) developed her unique painting technique as a self-taught artist; she applies acrylic paint directly to canvas or cardboard with her bare hands. She starts a painting like a walk without a destination, without a predetermined plan in her mind. She paints by intuition until a composition emerges. A dreamy landscape of colors where small flowers, animals, and skulls float. The girls in Japanese manga style are a recurring element in her work, with large eyes and long arms and legs. These girls are a way for Rokkaku to express her personality in her paintings.
The 1.56-meter-tall Rokkaku regularly demonstrates her painting technique during live painting performances on canvases as wide as seven meters. “It’s wonderful to paint on something much larger than myself. As I move back and forth between the corners of such a large canvas, the colors begin to flow through my body.” In recent years, Rokkaku has experimented with various new techniques and materials. This has resulted in installations made of wool and cardboard, sculptures of layered acrylic, and hand-painted antique Louis Vuitton suitcases.
Ayako Rokkaku, a world citizen, lives and works alternately in Berlin, Porto, Tokyo, and Amsterdam. Rokkaku made her first paintings in 2002 by applying acrylic paint to cardboard with her hands. From that moment, her work began to attract attention, followed by various awards and scholarships. Since her first solo exhibition at Galerie Delaive in 2007, Rokkaku has had exhibitions in Asia, Europe, and the United States, including solo exhibitions at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam.
The exhibition will be on view from June 8 – August 25, 2019
