Meet and learn from visual artist, Gina Ariko!
ABOUT GINA:
Gina Ariko is a Seattle-based artist, educator, and community organizer. She credits her lifelong love of painting to her ojichan and obaachan, who were both professional artists in Kitakyushu, Japan. Despite the language and distance barriers between them, painting gave them a way to connect, which deeply impacted her relationship to art. After earning a BA in both English and Fine Art, she views art as another form of storytelling, and is particularly interested in exploring all the ways identity, cultural heritage, and self expression can be communicated with and without language.
ABOUT GINA’S ART:
Growing up biracial and a first-generation American, I often felt caught in the in-between, sometimes feeling “too American to be Japanese” and other times “too Japanese to be American.” This push-and-pull shows up in my work: nostalgia and a search for belonging are recurring themes in my paintings. I'll often incorporate Japanese still life objects or pattern work into my paintings as a way to study and share more of my heritage. I like painting common household objects in order to capture quiet, intimate everyday moments that might otherwise be overlooked.
Likewise, my figurative work is inspired by old family photos, at once familiar and distant, and the way shared memories can almost feel more like dreams. I love lingering in that in-between space, and hope that my paintings bring out a mix of comfort and curiosity in others, too.
FOLLOW + SEE GINA’S WORK:
https://www.instagram.com/ginaariko
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