Aki Narita (b. 1966) is a Japanese artist famous for portraying young, doll-like girls. As she says, "Girls are the least obviously sexual of human beings and keep sexuality in the safest place. Lewis Carroll's desire to confine all sexuality within such girls is the main motive for his attraction to them. I, too, love the secret coexistence of the most sexual and the purest in girls."
Fig. 1. Aki Narita with her paintings (orangerabbit84.sakura.ne.jp)
Fig. 2. livedoor.blogimg.jp
Fig. 3. ivedoor.blogimg.jp
Fig. 4. orangerabbit84.sakura.ne.jp
Fig. 5. Twitter.com
Fig. 6. Twitter.com
Fig. 7. jiromiuragallery.com
Fig. 8. Disgust (artnet.com)
Fig. 9. Ark of Awakening (orangerabbit84.sakura.ne.jp)
A Sense of Mistrust
The info on Aki Narita's personal life is scarce. It's known that she was born in 1966 in Aomori Prefecture (Honshu island) and developed as a self-taught artist. From an early age, she treated drawing as a way of sublimating her frustration. Speaking of her childhood, Narita recalls: "I used to be lonely most of the time. My parents were very busy; they didn't care much about me. I got a sense of mistrust to people at that time." She concludes with a phrase: "I'm not sure if I'm happy or not to be born." There's no information on her education on the galleries' websites. Her first exhibition happened in 1987 in Tokyo. Though she hasn't held any exhibitions abroad yet, her works attract the attention of collectors worldwide. Narita works in the fields of manga and oil painting. Working with oil, she strives to depict the skin tone, which is a challenge for many past and contemporary masters.
Fig. 10. Goldfish. Mural by Aki Narita (parkhoteltokyo.com)
Fig. 11. Instagram.com
Fig. 12. Twitter.com
Fig. 13. The Misfortunes of Virtue, 2017 (orangerabbit84.sakura.ne.jp)
Fig. 14. Pink Flamingo Circus (yamada-shoten.com)
Western Influence
A sense of mistrust to people, resulting in loneliness, which Narita considers a reason for her creative process, is manifested in the dark atmosphere of her works. Narita prefers the Sadean circus to the sensual utopia of Shunga. She portrays all kinds of erotic tortures, sometimes transforming figures into tiger lilies or birds and animals (fig. 13), which gives us a sudden parallel to violent ancient metamorphoses retold by Ovid. In her mural at the Shiodome Park Hotel in Tokyo, Narita refers to traditional motifs, depicting delicate geishas with golden fish (fig. 10); yet her portfolio is heavily inspired by Western art. When she portrays phantasmagoric tortures, the victims are often shown hanging upside down in a way that the lower parts of their bodies are accentuated, which by all means is very alike to Bellmer's four-legged constructions, as well as the curviness of Narita's little dolls depicted in unnatural poses is similar to that of Bellmer's dolls.
Fig. 15. Hans Bellmer, Doll (ebay.com)
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Sources: art-scenes.net/ja/artists/1108; instagram.com/chengtianzhuxi3/; orangerabbit84.sakura.ne.jp/shinobazu-2012/artists/narita-aki/9220/; /blog.livedoor.jp/jiromiuragallery/archives/cat_1173030
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