山口 藍

1977年東京都生まれ。「とうげのお茶や」で遊女として暮らす少女たちを、独特の支持体を用い、繊細かつしなやかな描線で表現する。少女に幾つもの意味やイメージを重ねあわせて描かれた作品世界は、奥行きのある情景や余韻を感じさせる。江戸時代の文化や風俗を下敷きに、琳派、和歌などさまざまな日本の美を継承しつつ、新たな“美人画”を描くべく独自の理想美を追求している。国内に留まらず、活動の場を海外にも広げ多くの注目を集めている。
近年の主な展覧会に「Kamisaka Sekka: dawn of modern Japanese design」（ニューサウスウェールズ州立美術館、オーストラリア、2012）、「大古事記展ー五感で味わう、愛と想像の物語」（奈良県立美術館、2014）、個展「今と古ゝに」（ミヅマアートギャラリー、東京、2018）、神宮の杜芸術祝祭「百年の杜のアート『紫幹翠葉』」（明治神宮ミュージアム、東京、2020）、など。


Yamaguchi Ai was born in Tokyo in 1977. Her works feature a unique support material below the picture surface, and are expressed with supple and delicately-drawn lines, often depicting women who live as ladies of the night in a teahouse on a mountain ridge, known as the touge no ochaya. The world of her painting, in which the girls are depicted with various layers of meanings and images, gives audience a sense of depth and a lingering feeling. Taking as her model the culture and customs of the Edo period, she accedes to the legacy of various forms of Japanese beauty from rinpa art to classical waka poetry. In doing so, she continually searches after a unique kind of ideal beauty: a renewed iteration of the classical Japanese form of paintings of beautiful women or bijinga. Her works have gained widespread acclaim both within Japan and internationally.
Significant exhibitions in recent years include "Kamisaka Sekka - dawn of modern Japanese design" (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 2012), "The Grand Kojiki Exhibition – Feelings and words handed down from past generations to the future" (Nara Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan, 2014), solo exhibition "ima to kokonoi" (Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2018) and Meiji Jingu Forest Festival of Art "Shikansuiyo – Beautiful Forest and Nature" (Meiji Jingu Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2020) etc.