AIKO'S STREET ART TRAVELING, Message from the Artist

I moved to NY independently in 1997, and started my life in the U.S. from scratch. I officially started my
artist career as I gradually got absorbed into the movement of street art and graffiti art. In the past twenty
years, I met and parted with so many people through "the streets" around the globe. My artist life started
off as a bumpy journey but now that I am involved in painting murals, exhibitions at galleries and
museums, film making, fashion design, and even teaching at universities... I feel that the range of my work
has gone beyond the streets. For my first exhibition in Japan at the Shizuoka City Tokaido Hiroshige
Museum of Art, I am going to introduce my experiences and documents related to “Travel” as the central
theme, which Hiroshige and Hokusai must have also loved so much. This will be a collage installation of
various materials related to my travels and productions including original artworks, videos, photographs,
sketches, and journals created on my trips, as well as unique hand-cut stencils and tools. The source of my
ideas come from what I see and feel on my travelings; it gives me strong energy and great motivation for
future. Through this exhibition, I hope I can share positive and stimulating vibes with all of you, hope you
get excited, you want to created something, venture out on your own journey.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
xAIKO