AYAKO OHNO

Artist bio

Green is the Color of Grass, the Color of Mantis
April 5 - 24, 2022
venue: CADAN YURAKUCHO (cadan.org/en/cadan-yurakucho/access/)
Open Tue. to Fri. 11am-7pm, Sat., Sun. 11am-5pm / Closed on Mon.

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Ayako Ohno has consistently worked with stone to create her sculptures. As an artist exploring the limitless possibilities of stone sculpture, Ohno's works inspired by plants, natural landscapes, and everyday activities take on a unique "form".

Ohno's newest work, "Green is the Color of Grass, the Color of Mantis" was inspired by the words of her three- year-old child. The mantises hiding and jumping around in the grass seem to be an image surfaced through the child's eyes, along with her past memories as a child. As Ohno claims, "from a simple event, a new world in which we have never seen opens before us", the mantises, although made with hard and heavy stone, appear to possess a sense of lightness in which frees us from the constraints of gravity and time, as well as it invites us to feel as if we are encountering something of the unknown.

However, the mantis and traces of grass carved out of wood chips and deep rocks, and the mantis carved out of solid stainless steel, both remind us of the strictly rigid materiality that stands before us. Ohno's works, characterized by binary images of lightness and heaviness; freedom and constraint; three- dimensionality and flatness, may be one indicador in which aids us to connect to the origins of this world, where countless events intricately intermingle with one another.

Ayako Ohno was born in 1983 in Saitama, Japan. Gained B.F.A in Sculpture from Joshibi university of art and design and M.F.A. in Sculpture from Tokyo national university of fine arts and music.
Recently, Ohno presented her work in solo show "Showcase Gallery -Ayako Ohno" at Yokohama Civic Art Gallery Azamino, Kanagawa, 2020, "TIMELINE -Multiple measures to touch time" at The Kyoto University Museum, Kyoto, 2019, solo show "Person like fish" at KAYOKOYUKI, Tokyo, 2018, "Tokorozawa Biennial of Contemporary Art –railroad siding 2017" in Saitama, "Reborn-Art Festival 2017 -Do sculptors Dream of electric car (TOYOTA prius) curated by XYZ collective" at GALVANIZE gallery, Miyagi, 2017, "leave" at Akiyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2017. Ohno received the grand prize of Daikokuya Contemporary Art Raise Exhibition 2012, and presented her work in solo show "Sakanatoshite Tsukaru" at Itamuro Onsen Daikokuya, Tochigi, 2013, "Work shop: Kurashinonakani mirukatachi" at Nerima Art Museum, Tokyo, 2014. Her works have been installed in Shodo island, Kagawa, and Kanagawa Sagamihara Park, Kanagawa, Sukagawa Midorigaoka Park, Fukushima. Lives and works in Saitama.

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