05/02/2026
Untitled
Ayako Rokkaku
2026
Acrylic on canvas
(b. 1982, Chiba, Japan) lives and works between Berlin, Porto, and Tokyo. Known internationally for her instinctive and performative approach, Rokkaku paints directly with her bare hands, using her fingers to spread and shape acrylic paint across the canvas. This distinctive technique lends her work an immediate sense of movement, intimacy, and spontaneity, while underscoring the physical relationship between body, gesture, and image. Moving fluidly between abstraction and figuration, her vibrant paintings draw from kawaii culture, abstract expressionism, and the boundless imagination of childhood, often unfolding as fantastical worlds populated by drifting forms and imagined beings.
This work was created during a live painting session at the opening reception of “Trails of Life in the Air”. Over the course of three hours, Rokkaku worked in a state of focused and uninterrupted concentration, as the imagery gradually evolved. Employing her distinctive finger-painting technique, the artist engaged the canvas through touch and movement, allowing the work to unfold intuitively in real time. The audience was invited to witness this process, an immediate and embodied form of making that lies at the core of her practice.
To see how this work is painted, check out our youtube video!
👉 https://youtu.be/5R3j5gjEXxo?si=zo71221tj6wUl6VA
Image courtesy of Elvis Yang.
This exhibition is proudly supported by Shadbolt Centre for the Arts (), and Deer Lake Artist Residencies ( ).
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts ()
With special thanks to KÖNIG GALERIE ()
