AJIOKA Shintaro

Born 1949 in Aichi
Based in Aichi

Ajioka Shintaro is a man of many faces: artist, editor, designer, typographer. The inspiration that launched his career as an artist struck in 1989, when he encountered the richly colored soil in the East Mikawa region while renovating his home in Toyohashi. Afterward he began collecting soil samples in the Mikawa region of Aichi Prefecture and elsewhere, in what he calls geological surveys, and using them to create a wide range of works ranging from flat pieces on paper to shapes resembling huts, tea bowls and other forms. He has particularly focused on producing paintings in which the extracted soil is mixed with wood glue and affixed to cotton cloth. Although these are straightforward presentations of the soil collected in a certain location and from a particular geological stratum, they have a fascinating, seemingly infinite range of color variations and textural qualities.