Ai Kumehara “The Voice of Silence” (Kyoto Tsutaya Books) ｜Tokyo Art Beat

After completing her studies in the Japanese Painting Department at the Graduate School of Tama Art University, Ai Kumehara took part in artistic residencies abroad and now lives in her studio in Nagano. Her distinctive style combines traditional Japanese painting techniques with her unique sensibility. She creates an underpainting with highly transparent pigments and then applies a thin layer of Japanese paper to the entire surface, which she colors with mineral pigments.

Kumehara has been interested in nature since childhood and was influenced by the natural perspective of Torahiko Terada, an important modern Japanese naturalist. From 2019 to the first half of 2020, she traveled to Denmark, where she undertook creative residencies in gardens, nature reserves and Kolonihaves, artificially created natural spaces. Due to the lockdown caused by COVID-19, her stay was unexpectedly extended and during this time she encountered animals that suddenly appeared in pristine natural environments. This experience led her to depict animals as symbols and since then she has been expressing an imaginary world that oscillates between life and death.

The current exhibition, titled “The Voice of Silence” and inspired by words from Kumehara’s 2020 diary, features works that incorporate traditional Japanese art forms such as folding screens and gold leaf backgrounds.