Wood engraver / Illustrator

Ai Ikeda is a Japanese artist born in 1983, living between Japan and Switzerland.
Her work mixes different techniques : watercolor, wood engraving, Ink, resin and dry flowers.
Her original work also mixes traditional Japanese style with more contemporary influences, as well as a sense for details and love for calligraphy.

Assistant of Yasuhiko Kida

While specializing in photography studies at university, she fell in love with linoleum engraving. Starting slowly alone, she was taken under the wing of master engraver Yasuhiko Kida as an assistant.

Multiculturality on a Japanese canva
She decided to stop her studies in photography to work 100% on her new passion, wood engraving. Her skills as well as her knowledge of traditional Japanese techniques blend with her love for other Western artists. Her varied influences give her line a touch of multiculturalism on a traditional Japanese background that amazes the imagination.

Some influences
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Aubrey Beardsley
Jan Švankmajer
Eva Švankmajerová
Uno Akira

Mother Nature
Although her themes are varied, we find in almost all of her pieces the central theme of women and nature, and this especially since the birth of her first child.

 

Exhibitions Highlights

July 2018 / Larme mère
H.P.France Window Gallery Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan

October 2018 / Larmes & Tarot Cards
Omotesando Art Fair, Tokyo, Japan

August 2020 / Portraits & Kotowaza
H.P.France Window Gallery Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan

October 2021 / Poya & Mère Sereine
Trace-Eciart, Bulle, Switzerland

TV capsule / La Télé / Switzerland

“LARME-MERE”
Creation of the main piece of theLarmeseries

“MERE SEREINE”
Creation of the new piece Mère Sereine

Coming soon

Crystals & Stamps
Original stamps, and crystal made with resin and dry flowers

Animated WishCards
Collaboration with : Rinaldo Wirz