Amin Abbas

Mayu Ikeda is a Japanese contemporary artist who primarily creates digital art using only smartphone. Through art activities, she wants to transcend language and borders and unite the world. We carry out activities in the hope of world peace.

Additionally, she founded an art community called “What is Art? Art Theory” in 2017, which continues to this day. It’s a community of more than 1100 people.

She believes that there are two ways of living in this world. One is to live through pain, and the other is to live in a bland way. Facing inner passion and achieving anything, even at the cost of pain, sacrifice, and life—a way of life that knows the pain that goes through—sometimes they are called eccentrics, and over time, they become great people.

There is scenery that can’t be reached by just being good at the basics and being bland. It’s a way of life that takes away life, so mental and physical strength are always at their limits, and devoting so completely to it makes it feel like it’s about to break. She believes that those who achieve this will ultimately realize love and world peace. 

Ikeda shared exclusively with Arab News Japan her inspiration for art, saying, “I’m doing creative activities on the theme of space and energy. I got the conviction that it was my mission to do art from within myself. I started out completely self-taught in art, so no one introduced me to art in the first place.”

“I was influenced by the minimalism of Japanese culture. For Japanese beauty, it is important to be conscious of the praise of shadows,” she added.

About the establishment of her career in the art field, Ikeda said, “It was my first art activity to do an experience-based exhibition instead of just looking at paintings.”

“I challenged myself to draw digital art using only smartphones and get likes from 1 million people. In 2018, there was a response from 1 million people in just one month. In 2018, digital art was not very popular in general, but it was a challenge as a pioneer of digital art that uses only smartphones,” she added.

Ikeda’s digital artwork titled “flower” got a huge response from all over the world. She said that that flower is a work that can be understood universally, so she started activities to send the flower to the world.

“I used a gradient of light to make it look like butterflies are flying down on the flowers. I was conscious of light and shadow, and I created the work so that the light looks like a butterfly, and I entrusted the work to the sensibility of the viewer.” 

About the challenges that she faced during her projects, Ikeda said, “My work was mainly digital art. Starting creative activities in analog art, it was difficult to create a new style of painting. It was difficult for me to create a unique new style by fusing analog art and digital art.”

Ikeda visited the UAE in March 2022 to attend the Dubai Expo 2022. “I experienced the beautiful art of geometry in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Both cities put a lot of effort into the arts, and I was able to experience cutting-edge art,” she said. “When I visited the Grand Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, I was inspired by the beauty of the colors and the beauty of the mosque with its motif of flowers.”

Regarding her upcoming projects in the near future, Ikeda said, “Using state-of-the-art technology, I plan to proceed with a project in the Middle East that will not only be viewed as a painting, but will also be a large-scale experiential exhibition. I’m envisioning a system where you can enter on a ticket system rather than purchasing a painting.”