Aya Shimohara was born in 1986.

Aya majored in design at Kyoto Saga University of Arts, but focused on painting independently.

She has worked as an apparel designer & planner, freelance artist & illustrator since 2017.

Until now, Aya has been actively exhibiting in various countries such as New York, London, Sydney and Taiwan.

Her works look pop because she uses bright colors and smartphone-shaped panels.

However, the main axis of her concept is the sense of incongruity and questions about the current era.

So, she tries to make a huge contrast.

Smartphones and tablets, owned by many people, have become infrastructure, inorganic yet symbolic of people’s lives.

The painter uses her index finger to paint on panels shaped like smartphones and tablets, because we use our index fingers a lot to operate them. Additionally, she also uses a giant model of her finger, made with 3D technology, which is an exact scan of her finger when drawing on large sized panels. Tries to preserve in them the materiality of the pigments and the clarity of the traces left by her fingers.

The selfie compositions and mirror painting used frequently in her work metaphorically represent “the relationship between self and other” and “ambivalence”.

She sometimes feels uncomfortable with social networking and online activities, because she force-visualizes herself in the words and actions of others.

Aya feels as if she is being judged on what she herself thinks about it, even if it is the opinion or action of others.

It’s good that we live in a world where diversity is valued and diverse values and opinions are accepted, but at the same time, The painter feels as if she is constantly being asked “What do you think?”

When you look into her work, the mirror reflects you. This mechanism is an expression of contemporary society, it begs the question: “What do you think?”