Aiko

Born in Japan, Lady Aiko has been living and working in New York since the 1990s. She was an assistant to the famed contemporary pop artist Takashi Murakami and has collaborated with several street artists, including Bansky, FAILE, and others. Her name translates as “Love,” and she tries to infuse all of her work with the spirit of this moniker. Using stencils, glitter, spray paint, acrylic, and other materials on unusual surfaces—such as mirrors, found wood, and car hoods—Aiko creates densely layered images alluding to themes of sexuality, femininity, and popular culture. For Untitled (window #1) (2014), Aiko stenciled a woman and street-artist rabbit—two of her signature calling cards—onto a window triptych. With one image set within each of the window’s three registers, Aiko’s vibrant imagery is fully present, yet the transparency of the glass also synthesizes the pictures within the room at large.