{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@id": "https://aaploit.com/en/artists/michimata-aoi", "@type": "Person", "name": "MICHIMATA Aoi", "alternateName": "みちまたあおい", "url": "https://aaploit.com/en/artists/michimata-aoi", "sameAs": "https://aaploit.com/ja/artists/michimata-aoi", "affiliation": { "@id": "https://aaploit.com/#organization" }, "birthDate": "2000", "description": "Michimata Aoi continues to work in woodblock printing, addressing the positions and choices individuals face within social structures. Referencing \"Kafka's Staircase,\" a concept proposed by social ac…", "disambiguatingDescription": "Social structures assign us positions and demand choices. To strive upward, to remain in place, or to take a different path—examining the weight of these choices and what lies beyond them forms the core of Michimata Aoi's practice.\n\n\"Kafka's Staircase\" is a concept proposed by social activist and writer Ikuta Takeshi. Descending the stairs step by step—losing employment, losing one's address, ending up on the streets—is easy, but the staircase back to one's former life rises like a wall. Referencing this concept, Michimata has depicted the difficulties of ascending, descending, and remaining in place within picture-book-like, gentle imagery.\n\nYet the inquiry does not stop at \"the staircase one cannot climb.\" Away from the social pressure to ascend, there is relief in belonging somewhere. That relief is indeed necessary, yet it is inseparable from the anxiety of remaining there indefinitely. Standing at a crossroads, making choices, and the belonging and stagnation that follow—the artist's concerns have developed toward these questions.\n\nIn her practice, Michimata progressively carves while layering impressions. The woodblock changes with each printing, and although edition numbers are assigned, the same image cannot be printed after completion. Once you move forward, you cannot return. This irreversibility is not unrelated to the themes of descending the staircase and making choices.\n\nThe figures depicted in her work do not tell dramatic stories. Within a gentle visual language, they simply exist. Michimata intends this quietness to open a space where each viewer weaves their own narrative.", "cv": [ { "section": "EDUCATION" }, { "year": "2023", "entries": [ "B.F.A. in Printmaking, Department of Oil Painting, Musashino Art University, Tokyo" ] }, { "year": "2025", "entries": [ "M.F.A. in Printmaking, Graduate School of Art and Design, Musashino Art University, Tokyo" ] }, { "section": "SOLO EXHIBITIONS" }, { "year": "2025", "entries": [ "relief, Sapporo Art Park Museum, Hokkaido", "community of, aaploit, Tokyo" ] }, { "year": "2024", "entries": [ "SPRING, aaploit, Tokyo" ] }, { "year": "2023", "entries": [ "Michimata Aoi Exhibition, anonymous art project, Tokyo", "own pace, aaploit, Tokyo" ] }, { "section": "SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS" }, { "year": "2025", "entries": [ "New Acquisitions / Collection + Women Artists, Each World, Arts Maebashi, Gunma" ] }, { "year": "2024", "entries": [ "The Joy of Being With, Gallery COLORBEAT, Seoul, South Korea", "Emerging Echoes: Presenting Realism, Gallery COLORBEAT, Seoul, South Korea", "The 48th National University Print Exhibition, Ueda City Museum of Art, Nagano" ] }, { "section": "ART FAIRS" }, { "year": "2025", "entries": [ "Art Fair Tokyo 2025, Tokyo (aaploit)", "INAS 2025 – Incheon Art Show, Incheon, South Korea (aaploit)", "2024", "AFAF - Art Fair Asia Fukuoka, Fukuoka (aaploit)" ] }, { "section": "WORKSHOPS" }, { "year": "2025", "entries": [ "Printmaking Workshop, Arts Maebashi, Gunma" ] }, { "year": "2023", "entries": [ "Spin and Surprise!? Try Rotational Printmaking!, Kiyoshi Saito Museum of Art, Fukushima" ] }, { "section": "AWARDS & GRANTS" }, { "year": "2023", "entries": [ "Excellence Award, 3rd anonymous collection" ] }, { "section": "SELECTED COLLECTIONS" }, { "year": "", "entries": [ "Arts Maebashi" ] }, { "section": "SELECTED PRESS" }, { "year": "2025", "entries": [ "Art Collectors, No.191, February 2025: Dialogue with Yuji Akimoto" ] }, { "year": "2023", "entries": [ "Gendai Shiso (Contemporary Thought), January 2024 Special Issue on Kafka: Work featured in essay by Ikuta Takeshi", "Fukushi no Hiroba, December 2023 & January 2024: Work featured in column by Ikuta Takeshi" ] } ], "biography": [ { "year": "", "entries": [ "Michimata Aoi works in woodblock printing, continuously questioning one's position and choices within social structures. Through a process of progressive carving and layering, the woodblock transforms with each impression. Although edition numbers are assigned, the same image cannot be printed again after completion. Generated irreversibly despite being a reproductive medium, each work emerges as a singular existence — just as each person's experience differs from another. MFA in Printmaking, Graduate School of Art and Design, Musashino Art University, 2025. Major solo exhibitions include relief (Sapporo Art Park Museum, 2025) and community of (aaploit, 2025). Her work is held in the collection of Arts Maebashi. Born in 2000 in Hokkaido, Japan." ] } ], "relatedLink": "https://aaploit.com/en/artists/michimata-aoi/works" }, { "@id": "https://aaploit.com/en/exhibitions/michimata-aoi-community-of-", "@type": "ExhibitionEvent", "name": "community of ", "url": "https://aaploit.com/en/exhibitions/michimata-aoi-community-of-", "sameAs": "https://aaploit.com/ja/exhibitions/michimata-aoi-community-of-", "startDate": "2025-02-07", "endDate": "2025-02-24", "location": "aaploit, Tokyo", "artists": [ { "@id": "https://aaploit.com/en/artists/michimata-aoi" } ] }, { "@id": "https://aaploit.com/en/exhibitions/michimata-aoi-spring", "@type": "ExhibitionEvent", "name": "SPRING", "url": "https://aaploit.com/en/exhibitions/michimata-aoi-spring", "sameAs": "https://aaploit.com/ja/exhibitions/michimata-aoi-spring", "startDate": "2024-04-05", "endDate": "2024-04-21", "location": "aaploit, Tokyo", "artists": [ { "@id": "https://aaploit.com/en/artists/michimata-aoi" } ] }, { "@id": "https://aaploit.com/en/exhibitions/michimata-aoi-own-pace", "@type": "ExhibitionEvent", "name": "own pace", "url": "https://aaploit.com/en/exhibitions/michimata-aoi-own-pace", "sameAs": "https://aaploit.com/ja/exhibitions/michimata-aoi-own-pace", "startDate": "2023-09-01", "endDate": "2023-09-24", "location": "aaploit, Tokyo", "artists": [ { "@id": "https://aaploit.com/en/artists/michimata-aoi" } ] }, { "@id": "https://aaploit.com/en/journal/irreversible-impressions", "@type": "Article", "headline": "Irreversible Impressions: Michimata Aoi and the Staircase You Cannot Climb Back", "url": "https://aaploit.com/en/journal/irreversible-impressions", "description": "In Michimata's woodblock prints, a reproductive medium that cannot reproduce meets a staircase you cannot climb back. Each carved layer is permanent. Each step, once passed, changes shape behind you.", "about": [ { "@id": "https://aaploit.com/en/artists/michimata-aoi" } ] }, { "@id": "https://aaploit.com/ja/texts/michimata-aoi-text-01", "@type": "Article", "headline": "カフカの階段", "url": "https://aaploit.com/ja/texts/michimata-aoi-text-01", "description": "道又蒼彩の作品には、階段に居る人々が描かれる。登る者、降りる者、立ち止まる者、振り返る者。生田武志の提唱する「カフカの階段」を参照している。同じ段に立っているはずなのに、その高さの感じ方が違うこと、そして一度降りた段を登り直すことの困難さを主題とする。道又が用いる油性木版画のリダクション・プリントは、版木を段階的に彫り進めながら紙に色を重ねる技法で、一度刷った版は前の状態に戻らない。複製のための…", "about": [ { "@id": "https://aaploit.com/en/artists/michimata-aoi" } ] } ] }