BIOGRAPHY

Ayumi OKITA

Born in 1994 in Okayama, Japan. Lives and works in Ishikawa.

Ayumi Okita creates paintings using lacquer as a medium. Viewing lacquerbeing the sap of plants—as a substance that undergoes changes beyond the creator's expectations, Okita perceives it as a mediator between humans and nature, reflecting on the relationships between human and non-human entities. Okita refers to the reciprocal interaction between the creator’s actions and the responses of lacquer as a “collaborative creation,” expanding their focus to the interplay between human activity and the inseparable natural environment.

In 2018, Okita graduated from the Department of Oil Painting at Kanazawa College of Art. In 2020, they completed the Master's program in the Department of Crafts at the same institution. In 2024, Okita completed the doctoral program in the Art Research Department at Kanazawa College of Art. They were also dispatched as an exchange student to the Academy of Art & Design, Tsinghua University (Beijing, China) in 2016 and 2024.

Selected exhibitions include "Blessings Travel Through Wounds" (Kuma Foundation Gallery, Tokyo, 2024), "For the Breathing Things in the Darkness of Caves" (BUoY, Kitasenju, Tokyo, 2024), and "Condensing Forests" (galleria PONTE, Ishikawa, 2022), among others.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

B.F.A, Oil painting, Kanazawa college of Art, Kanazawa/ Japan

M.F.A,  Urushi/woodwork, Craft, Kanazawa college of Art, Kanazawa/ Japan

Exchange Studying Abroad, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing/ China　

Teaching Assistant, Department of Oil Painting, Kanazawa College of Art.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Solo Exhibitions

"A Quiet Garden and Secrets" Kanazawa Youyo (IShikawa/ Japan)

"Bearing Calendars, Consuming Seeds" Shirasagi art (IShikawa/ Japan)
"Blessings Flow Through the Wounds" KUMA foundation gallery (Tokyo/ Japan)
"For Those Who Dwell in the Darkness of the Cave" BUoY Arts Center Tokyo (Tokyo/ Japan)

“Pass through the palm of my hand” Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum (Kanazawa/ Japan)
“Forest with condensation” galleria PONTE (Kanazawa/ Japan)

4weeksselection “Come on, fly around in here” KANAZAWA CRAFTS HIROSAKA (Kanazawa/ Japan)

“Lacquer panting, Continue to breathe” HISHIO – Centre for Cultural Exchange (Okayama/ Japan)

Group Exhibitions

"Long Night Art Festival: Prologue" Old Town, Nagahama City, Shiga Prefecture (Shiga/ Japan)
"Figurative ⇔ Abstract — The moment or impetus in painting where the figurative transforms into the abstract, or vice versa"
Curator: Hiroki Yamamoto, ASTER Curator Museum (Ishikawa/ Japan)
"Fermentation Culture Art Festival Kanazawa – A Journey to Sensing the Invisible" Kanazawa and Tsurugi City (Ishikawa/ Japan)
"Inheritance and Transcendence: Lianfu Contemporary Lacquer Painting (International) Invitational Exhibition"  Xiamen Lianfu Art Museum (Xiamen/ China)
“A GRADUATE  EXHIBITION SELECTED BY ARTGUMMI” KANAZAWA ARTGUMMI (Kanazawa/ Japan)　
“KANAZAWA COLLEGE OF ART GRADUAION WORKS 2024" 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Kanazawa/ Japan)
“The 16th Exhibition of Selected Works of the I Prize for the Development of New Artists in Okayama Prefecture” TENJINYAMA CULTURAL PLAZA OF OKAYAMA PREFECTURE (Okayama/ Japan)

“ploonet” Shiinoki Cultural Complex (Ishikawa/ Japan)
“Uchinada Struggle: Memories of Wind and Sand”  Uchinada Town Museum of History and Folklore: Wind and Sand Museum/ Ruins of Uchinada U.S. Military Test Firing Range/ Ruins of Landing Site Observation Station (Ishikawa/ Japan)
“The 30th Scholarship Art Exhibition” The Sato Museum of Art (Tokyo/ Japan)

“The New Power of Lacquer” Matsuzakaya Nagoya ( Aichi / Japan)
“URUSHI HEYA” Gallery muku (Ishikawa/ Japan)
“The 13th Exhibition of Selected Works of the I Prize for the Development of New Artists in Okayama Prefecture” OKAYAMA CITY MUSEUM (Okayama/ Japan)

“KUMA EXHIBITION 2019” Spiral Garden (Tokyo/Japan)

“AIZU URUSHI ARTFESTIVAL Lacquer:Possibilities and Futures” Gallery Abdu (Fukushima/ Japan)
“Selection of graduation/completion works 2018” Research Institute of Art & Design Gallery, Kanazawa college of Art (Ishikawa/ Japan)
“KANAZAWA COLLEGE OF ART GRADUAION WORKS 2018  21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Ishikawa/ Japan)

Art Fari

"KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa 2024" Guest Exhibition by Tomio Koyama Gallery, Hyatt Centric Kanazawa (Ishikawa/ Japan)
"Art Fair Beppu 2024" Beppu International Tourist Port, Former Ferry Sunflower Terminal (Oita/ Japan)

GRANTS & AWARDS

Sato International Cultural Scholarship Foundation Adopted as a scholarship recipient for the 30th term

“2017 president of a university's Award for Graduation and Completion Work” 
“2017 21st Century Museum of Art Award for Graduation and Completion Work” Jury: Atsuhiko Shimada
Kuma Foundation Second grader Student Creator Scholarship

Kanazawa College of Art “The 15th Shibata Award” ,  “The 38th Takifuji International Art Award” Excellence Prize

COLLECTION

Kanazawa college of Art, Kanazawa/Japan

Talks & Interviews

Exhibition "Figurative ⇔ Abstract" Artist Talk (YouTube Archive Available)
Venue: ASTER Curator Museum

KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa 2024 ARTIST TALKS
Featuring Akari Yamashita & Ayumi Okita from Tomio Koyama Gallery
Venue: Hyatt Centric Kanazawa, 2F

Kuma Foundation "Activity Support Interview vol.53"
"Painting with Lacquer – Between Craft and Painting"
Interviewer: Hiroki Yamamoto

Kanazawa College of Art Theater "Chironnup Kamuy Iomante" Screening & Talk
Featuring Ayumi Okita, Minoru Kitamura (Filmmaker), Hiroki Yamamoto (Cultural Researcher & Art Critic)

Criticism & Reviews

"Intersecting Spirals – Themes and Techniques of Ayumi Okita & Hinako Nakata" by Noriaki Kitazawa
Kanazawa College of Art Doctoral Program First-Year Research Exhibition "Ploonet" Catalogue, Published on March 25, 2021, pp. 70-71.

Essays & Poetry

"Studying at an Art University’s Graduate School" by Ayumi Okita
"KANABI Cutting Edge, Vol. 15"

"Uchinada Paintings" by Ayumi Okita
Published in "EXHIBITION: Uchinada Struggles – Memories of Wind and Sand" Symposium
"Reconsidering the Postwar Era from the Perspective of ‘Ura-Nihon’"
pp. 10-11, Kanazawa College of Art, March 2022.

"For Example, As a Bird Continues to Sing" by Ayumi Okita
Published in "Ploonet" – Kanazawa College of Art Doctoral Exhibition 2021, p. 44.

"A Study on the History and Practice of East Asian Lacquer Painting – Toward the Formation of Art Concepts Crossing Craft and Painting" by Ayumi Okita
Published in "Ploonet" – Kanazawa College of Art Doctoral Exhibition 2021, pp. 78-80.

Media Coverage

"The Life of Birds Expressed Through Lacquer Painting"
Hokuriku Chunichi Newspaper Digital, Hokuriku Chunichi Newspaper (Morning Edition), p. 12.

"Fermentation Culture Art Festival Kanazawa – A Journey to Feel the Invisible"
Report in "Bijutsu Techo Online"

"Fermentation as an Invisible Culinary Art – Walking Through Kanazawa’s Fermentation Culture Art Festival"
Report in "Casa BRUTUS"

"The Poetic World of Lacquer Painting – Solo Exhibition 'What Brushes Past My Palm'"
Hokuriku Chunichi Newspaper Digital, Hokuriku Chunichi Newspaper (Morning Edition)

Academic Publications

"The Visual and Tactile Aspects of Painting – Lacquer Painting Between Painting and Craft" by Ayumi Okita
"Annual Bulletin of Art & Craft Studies, Vol. 25," Kanazawa College of Art, pp. 1-13.

"The History and Theory of Lacquer Painting – Where Craft and Painting Intersect"
Ayumi Okita, Doctoral Dissertation, Kanazawa College of Art

Symposiums & Conferences

47th Annual Conference of the Japan Society for Visual Anthropology – Kanazawa
Symposium: "Revitalizing Regional Culture from Noto and Hokuriku"
"Unraveling the Culture of Lacquer and Urushi – Trees, Industry, and Folklore" by Ayumi Okita & Hiroshi Kaneyasu

"The Birth of East Asian Lacquer Painting and Creolization – Tracing the Modernization and Fusion of Lacquer Culture in Vietnam, China, and Japan"
Ayumi Okita, Cultural Typhoon 2021 in Kanazawa (Online Event)

"Creolization in East Asian Art and Tactile Expressions in Lacquer Painting"
Ayumi Okita, Research Seminar: "Materialism in Memory and Records – Examining ‘Ura-Nihon’," Ishikawa Four High School Memorial Cultural Exchange Center