Bio
Taiko is a Denver-based artist originally from Nagano, Japan. She first trained and worked as a nurse in Japan and the UK before moving to the United States. In 2011, she took her first printmaking class at the Art Students League of Denver, which marked the beginning of her artistic path.
She works across printmaking, sculpture, and installation, often incorporating unconventional materials.
Taiko has exhibited across Colorado, including solo show at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, the Denver Botanic Gardens, and the Littleton Museum. Nationally, she has shown in group exhibitions and print fairs across the U.S. In 2023, her installation of 150 monotype prints on Tyvek was featured in the exhibition "Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
She has held residencies at RedLine Contemporary Art Center (2020–2022) and Anderson Ranch Arts Center (2024). Her work has been featured in Hyperallergic and in A Tale of Two Balconies (Smithsonian Institution & Giles Ltd., 2024).
Artist Statement
Making art is how I process emotion, thought, and the unseen forces that shape my daily experiences. I work intuitively, questioning and iterating as I go. I focus primarily on printmaking, creating unique print, often using hand-cut stencils to layer images on paper. Over time, this approach has evolved into three-dimensional forms—each print shaped by hand or integrated into structural frameworks, becoming part of a larger assembly of prints installed within a specific space.
In particular, my Tyvek installations begin with individual prints that are prepared as abstract drawings on plexiglass, using oil-based etching ink. Guided by my intuition, I move my hands rhythmically across the plate, using a piece of mat board in place of a brush. The plate and Tyvek sheet are then run through an etching press to create an impression. With a craft knife, I cut away the negative space to let in light, creating shadows and subtle movement when installed in space. The sculptural works are, in essence, drawings in space—assembled on site over several days as nonpermanent installations. In recent work, I’ve combined the Tyvek pieces with intimate materials like my mother’s Japanese calligraphy practice pieces.These elements carry memory and offer a space for reflecting on my experience of living within cultural dualities.
Relatedly, during the pandemic I began creating sculptures from salvaged rubber traffic cone bases found in my neighborhood. Hammering thousands of dressmaker pins into the surface one by one—an unplanned, intensely repetitive, and tactile process that opens new paths to explore dimensionality and material transformation.