EGUCHI Ayane: Sugar-Coated Landscape
EGUCHI Ayane JP, b. 1985 TEXT BIO WORKS PRESS CV EXHIBITIONS 繁｜EN
EGUCHI Ayane: Sugar-Coated Landscape
2023.April.1—May.7
Hiro Hiro Art Space is pleased to collaborate with Mizuma Art Gallery on EGUCHI Ayane’s solo exhibition, Sugar-Coated Landscape, marking her debut in Taiwan. The show is on view from April 1st through May 7th, 2023.
The vast mountains seem frosted with pink icing; the waves crash on the chocolate candy-like rocks; the organisms’ nimble movements vibrate through the pastel forest…From the overall impression, the colorful and beautiful landscapes in EGUCHI Ayane’s paintings appear to be desserts, yet the close-ups interspersed with scenes of parasitism, putrefaction, decomposition, and destruction. The unsettling relationship of interdependence that often occurs in reality forms a “sugar-coated landscape” where cuteness and eeriness coexist.
EGUCHI Ayane’s works, underneath the surface of deliberate cuteness, reflect the inseparable duality in life. The recurring teddy bear character “KUMA” looks innocent and dreamy in their appearance, but pure cuteness does not exist. The relationship between organisms in the paintings is relevant to life, and death—growing/decaying, decomposing/nourishing, disintegrating/reviving. In her works, death is not the antithesis of life, but they mutually depend on and nourish, which echos her artistic techniques—first applying oil paints thickly, then scraping off some before drying, and building up the pigments again—interweaving “come” and “go” to create a seemingly fleshy texture, forming an infinite cycle of vigorous vitality.
Regarding the pursuit of fantasy, EGUCHI Ayane said, “I love fantasy stories such as Hayao Miyazaki’s movies and the Harry Potter series. At first glance, their worldview with magic and unique operating rules completely differs from ours. However, the more I understand those worlds, the more I realize they have the same hardships and sufferings as ours.” Just as the sugar coating of bitter medicine is not to make medicine taste good but to make it easier to swallow, the sugar coating on the surface of the world is not to thoroughly eliminate the bitterness of “death,” “disease,” and “all forms of discrimination,” it is the efforts of human beings to live a more pleasant life even in the face of inevitable sufferings, “I hope my paintings can become a source of nourishment for the viewer’s mind beyond the dimensions.” EGUCHI Ayane expected.
Interview
EGUCHI Ayane
EGUCHI Ayane was born in Hokkaido, Japan in 1985 and received her M.A. degree from Kanazawa College of Art in 2011, majoring in oil painting. Through her iconic pastel palette, she depicts stormy seas, swamps and mountains, where recurring fungi, coral and marine life reflect on the duality of beauty and danger, allure and poison, life and death. At first glance, her paintings appear to be candy-colored wonderlands, yet upon closer inspection they reveal treacherous scenarios beneath their sweetness. She applies multiple layers of oil paint, removes some areas before the paint dries, then builds up others, creating a fleshy, vivid texture that has become her unique expression. The recurring teddy bear character, “KUMA,” which means “bear” in Japanese, appears innocent on the surface yet remains unknowable within, much like her view of a world that defies binary oppositions.
She has held solo exhibitions in Tokyo, Taipei and Singapore, presented work at Art Basel Hong Kong, and exhibited in Taiwan, Singapore, China, Macau, the Philippines, Indonesia, the United States and Switzerland.
Works
Press
CV
1985 Born in Hokkaido, Japan
2011 M.A. in Oil Painting, Kanazawa College of Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Solo Exhibitions
2025
“Fugue of Day and Night”, Hiro Hiro Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan
“Cosmos of Color”, Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2024
“Intervals”, A/D Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2023
“Sugar-Coated Landscape”, Hiro Hiro Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan
2022
“‘Q’ which decomposes”, Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2020
“EIKO”, Meets by NADiff, Tokyo, Japan
“Viscera of the Vast Land”, Roppongi Hills A/D Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2018
“Ode to Wonderland”, Mizuma Gallery, Singapore
2013
“Mystical Kingdom”, MIZUMA ACTION, Tokyo, Japan
2011
“Fuwa・Moko・SaraSa・Ra”, Tokyo Wonder Site Hongo, Tokyo, Japan
Group Exhibitions
2024
Art Taipei 2024, Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1, Taipei, Taiwan
Tokyo Gendai 2024, Pacifico Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
“ART OF MIKU -Autumn Fair-“, Site-A Gallery Beneath the Railways, Kanagawa, Japan
Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
Art Fair Tokyo 2024, Tokyo, Japan
“ART OF MIKU”, PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO, Tokyo, Japan
“ART OF MIKU”, Sapporo PARCO, Hokkaido, Japan
2023
“Perception and Sensibility”, Humarish Club, Macau
2021
“BOUNDLESS”, Hwa’s Gallery, China
2019
“A Gentle Gaze”, Hwa’s Gallery, Shanghai, China
“Hopes & Dialogues in Rumah Kijang Mizuma”, Mizuma Gallery, Singapore
2018
“Prime Meridian”, Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery, Manila, Philippines
2017
Art Stage Singapore 2017, Mizuma Gallery, Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, Singapore
2016
“Seeing the Unseen”, Gallery Ohrin, Hitachi Izumo Taisha, Ibaraki, Japan
“Eyes & Curiosity -anomaly-“, Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Art Stage Jakarta 2016, Mizuma Gallery, Sheraton Grand Jakarta Gandaria City Hotel, Jakarta, Indonesia
“ART|JOG|9 Universal Influence”, Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Art Stage Singapore 2016, Mizuma Gallery, Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, Singapore
2015
Bazaar Art Jakarta 2015, Mizuma Gallery, The Ritz-Carlton Pacific Place, Jakarta, Indonesia
“Further towards the Future”, Mizuma Gallery, Singapore
2014
“Impacts! 勢み” Japan Art Festival, Zane Bennett Contemporary Art × Mizuma Art Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
2012
“To the Future”, MIZUMA ACTION, Tokyo, Japan
2011
“The Selections from Graduation Works 2011”, Kanazawa Art-Gummi Gallery, Ishikawa, Japan
2010
“2010 Kawaii Award”, Seibu Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
“carré 2010”, Gallery TEN, Ishikawa, Japan
“WONDER SEEDS 2010”, Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
“carré à zurich”, Zurich Insurance Company, Zurich, Switzerland
2009
“via art 2009”, Shinwa Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
“Jinzukyo Art Exhibition 2009”, Osawano Shogai Gakushu Center, Toyama, Japan
“Tokyo Wonder Wall 2009”, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
“cross”, Green Arts Gallery, Ishikawa, Japan
The 4th Mitsubishi Corporation Art Gate Program, Eye of Gyre, Tokyo, Japan
Awards
2011
“Judge’s Special Prize”, KANABI Creative Award 2010
