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BIO
Moeko MACHIDA is an Aichi (Japan)-born artist who creates paintings under the prominent theme: the nature of life. Placing herself amid all phenomena surrounding lives, she carefully observes and perceives phenomena, thus meticulously putting them into images.
Raised by biologist parents, she has been familiar with matters surrounding vitality and has had a strong perception of emotions since an early age. Consequently, she had gotten overwhelmed by the spirits of the dead and the invisible existences surrounding her. It was her expressionist self that found a way to face those presences that she could not detach herself from.
The ideas she nurtured in studying Japanese painting and Butoh dance also have influences on her artistry. While studying at the Kyoto City University of Arts, she learned the Japanese painting method that places emphasis on sketching, through which she acquired an attitude of taking time to face the subject matter with serenity. She also started dancing in her childhood and studied Butoh eagerly during college, which led her to apply the Butoh-derived idea of the body as being amid phenomena surrounding lives to her work.
The pebble-like round aggregates that frequently appear in her paintings mirror how something in life exists and evolves, representing not only the living but also the dead. Her ultimate goal in creation is to be aware of the ways our senses and perceptions are, and thus share them with others through her work.
She has participated in exhibitions, including solo shows, in Japan, Europe, and the San Francisco Bay Area, with her works now included in numerous private collections across these regions. She has also created sliding screen paintings for traditional Japanese houses and exhibited her work in hotels. In the spring of 2025, she begins a new creative journey based in Basel, Switzerland.
Statement
Through my painting practice, I explore what it means to be human through the relationship between people and nature.
I understand “being alive” as a state of perpetual becoming—an existence that is never fixed or complete, but continually unfolding.
By closely observing elements of nature such as stones, water, and plants, I explore the emotions that arise within us when we encounter forms of life that, though seemingly still, remain in a continuous state of becoming.
Drawing on perspectives on nature and symbolic traditions cultivated across East Asian cultures, I reconsider what these ideas mean to us today and reflect on the relationship between nature and humanity.
Through the repeated processes of layering, scraping, and washing Japanese mineral pigments, I create distinctive textures and subtle rhythms of color. These accumulated layers form pictorial spaces that function as poetic devices, resonating not only with the viewer’s gaze but also with the body.
Embracing abstraction and symbolism, my works also act as mirrors, awakening memories and emotions that lie deep within the viewer. In this sense, they are intended to remain close to us—accompanying us through the rhythms and turning points of life, while continuing to deepen in meaning over time.
私は絵画制作を通して、人と自然との関係性を手がかりに、人間とはいかなる生き物なのかを探究しています。
私は、「生命的であること」を「絶え間なく変化し続ける存在であること」と捉えています。
石や水、植物などの自然を注意深く観察し、一見静かに見えながらも、絶え間なく変化し続ける生命の姿に、人間がどのような情動を抱くのかに焦点を置き、制作のテーマを構築しています。
また、東アジア文化の中で育まれてきた自然観や象徴性も手がかりに、それらが現代の私たちにとって持つ意味を再考し、自然と人間の関係性を見つめ直しています。
日本画の岩絵具を重ね、削り、洗う工程を何度も繰り返すことで、独自の質感や微細な色彩のリズムを生み出し、鑑賞者の身体に共振する詩的装置となるような画面を形成しています。
私の作品は、抽象性や象徴性を孕みながら、鑑賞者の心の奥に眠る記憶や感情を呼び起こす、鏡のような存在でもあります。それゆえに、それらは生活や人生の節目に寄り添い、時とともに意味を深めていく「寄り添うアート」として在り続けます。
You can read more about the inspiration for Moeko's work at the following her Blog (Traces of Words) Check it out!
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