コバヤシ麻衣子

こばやし まいこMaiko Kobayashi

artist

Born in Yokohama, Japan, 1977. Now based in Tokyo. Maiko Kobayashi graduated from The Department of Scenography, Display and Fashion Design, Musashino Art University, Japan in 1998, and got the Master’s Degree from The School of Arts and Social sciences, Northumbria University, England in 2008. Kobayashi often paints dog or bunny-like creatures with soft features, clearly referred and inspired by real people that crossed the artist's path— and on the connections occurring between them and the empathy generated in their creator. Whimsical and cryptic at first glance, their eyes are always watching and ruminating what is happening in our world, with an omnipresent melancholy and deep, tense expression. These are said to express the conflicts, anxieties, hopes, and vitality of people living in the changing times and society. Kobayashi’s paintings invites viewers to have a glimpse of the artist's inner world, also a meditative processing itself. You might not be able to absorb all the senses flooding through her work at first glance, and the comprehension could differ from each person. Sometimes her creatures are all recorded in a sobbing impression, but it could also be a state when the sadness has just passed. Viewers might feel empty when they look at Kobayashi's paintings at first glance, but then one would feel the peacefulness seething through after a long stare.