Masako Ando, Where Are You?
By Anne Keehn
A couple years ago, SWINDLE approached Ms. Masako Ando to be in the magazine. She was mysteriously unresponsive at first—then she declined. Ando came onto the international art scene with guns blazing, back in 2005, when she showed alongside fellow Japanese artist Mika Kato at London’s famed White Cube Gallery. (Both artists are rep’d by the Tomio Koyama Gallery.) Kato had won the “Shinjin Prize” from Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum’s Roppongi Crossing, for most promising rookie artist in 2004, and garnered quite a buzz for her large scale, exquisitely rendered portraits of doe-eyed girls. Her work has been shown all over the world—from Israel to New Zealand.
Ando’s work got mentioned in countless blogs, which gushed about her depictions of “girl-children” that suggest “a corrupted innocence,” and her “gentle and beautiful” imagery. But as far as we can tell, she has never spoken to the non-Japanese press. And she never had another show outside of Japan.
Why???!!! We love her work… Until she emerges from her ethereal hiding place, you can enjoy her art online. More after the jump.
