There are countless layers of symbology, narrative and meaning woven into the aesthetic Takashi Murakami famously called “Superflat.” What began as an art style evolved into a movement, and from there, it grew into a full-fledged ecosystem of artists now working under the KaiKai Kiki studio-enterprise. Among them, a distinctly feminine voice has quietly emerged with increasing prominence in recent years. Aya Takano has firmly established herself on the global contemporary art stage with her spellbinding, ethereal visions. Her otherworldly tableaux are saturated with a cheerful kind of beauty and symbolism, yet subtly infused with a spiritual, even mystical, undercurrent. This quiet yet potent force offers a poetic counterpoint to the dominant anthropocentric worldview. Beyond the flatness, there exists a palpable spiritual depth that gestures toward an expanded awareness and a heightened consciousness of humanity’s place in the world.
“I try to never forget the kinds of questions and feelings I had during adolescence—like ‘Why does the universe exist?’ or ‘Why are living things alive?’” Takano told Observer when we caught up with her ahead of the opening of her new show at Perrotin Los Angeles. In pursuit of those questions, she has drawn from a wide constellation of disciplines—science, cultural anthropology, music, spiritual traditions and the raw material of her own lived experience. Yet, she remains convinced that the unconscious is far wiser and deeper than the conscious mind. “Using what I’ve learned as clues, I take a journey inward. I feel that if I go deep enough, that inner world is connected to everything else, like a collective unconscious,” she reflected.
While her work engages with the “Superflat” aesthetic of manga and anime, it is marked by a palpable emotional urgency and a unique spiritual depth rooted in a dense interweaving of mythological narratives, archetypes and symbolic forms. After all, when viewed through an anthropological and semiotic lens, the aesthetic of manga and anime—with their stylized imagery embodying entire psychological states and mythic structures distilled into episodic, quickly absorbable narratives—is not so far removed from the narrative mechanisms of contemporary fairy tales. Both function as symbolic systems, distilling complex emotional and existential questions into visual language and archetypal storytelling. Consider anime like Sailor Moon, The Zodiac Knights, Magical Circle Guru Guru, Cardcaptor Sakura, Digimon, Ojamajo Doremi, Monster Rancher or even global blockbuster like Pokémon—each, in its own way, seeks to educate a new generation toward a more harmonious, ecologically or cosmically attuned existence, grounded in the same archetypal roots that run through ancient cross-cultural myths.
For Takano, this depth arises from an ongoing practice of attuning herself to the flux of the collective unconscious—and from a keen awareness of her position at the crossroads of space and time. “Archetypes and myths ultimately hold immense power,” Takano noted as we discussed the archetypal force she infuses into her ultra-contemporary aesthetic, quietly linking it to more ancestral forms of wisdom. In a liminal, meditative state, she allows images to surface as visions—emerging from deeper layers of awareness and reality, shaped through an intuitive surrender to that current. “When I reach a certain meditative state, I start to see visions—and I paint what I see,” she added. “I place a lot of importance on unconscious intuition.” While she may set a general direction for each work, what actually appears—what she truly sees—remains unknown until it reveals itself on the canvas.
There was a time when her work was driven by anger at the state of the world. Today, Takano’s practice is increasingly focused on reawakening ecological awareness—a vital recognition that we are part of a vast entanglement of relationships and interdependencies, connecting us to other beings and the cosmos on both physical and spiritual levels. By tapping into the collective unconscious—that ever-elusive reservoir of visual and symbolic memory—she embarks on a search for deeper meaning: a return to the past, to the roots and essence of existence, to something that precedes the corrupted nature of contemporary human behavior. “I feel that the unconscious exists beyond the boundaries of time,” she said, “so I try to bring back something from that space—timeless wisdom, comfort, a direction or focus that I believe we should pay attention to.”
In Takano’s latest works, there is a clear effort to reflect on the human existential condition and our planetary position within a broader web of vital interdependencies and connections with other beings. Her highly imaginative compositions function like contemporary myths—through a symbolically charged visual lexicon, they transform into allegories of a speculative, more harmonious future. In contrast to a historically biased, anthropocentric worldview, she embraces the fantastical and the magical to propose alternative, participatory ecologies. Her aim is to search for and shape a new mythology—one that is also an ecology—guiding us toward deeper attunement with alternative forms of kinship and helping us envision a more organic, interconnected and balanced world.
The stories we unconsciously grow up believing—those embedded in the very fabric of the societal and political systems that shape how we orient ourselves in the world—are, Takano asserted, deeply impoverished. Take the myth of capitalism, for example, which imposes a human-centered, exploitative worldview. “I feel that they are trying to devour everything based on desire,” she said. “I am searching instead for a new myth that is different from that.” She believes that creating a powerful myth—one that communicates through symbols, in a poetic and empathic register—can have a greater impact than political protest or taking public office. “I would like to create a new myth that includes elements of magic that truly exist and are essential to living beings, yet are no longer recognized within the frameworks of symbiosis or scientific knowledge.”
This is something Takano began exploring from an early age. Her earliest drawings, made at age three, were simple circles, already hinting at the cyclical, spiral-like patterns that would later define her visual cosmology. These forms evoke the perpetual flux between birth, evolution, decay and renewal—a central theme in her practice. Not by coincidence, one of the works in the show depicts two characters reading Phoenix, the legendary manga by Osamu Tezuka—a visionary tale that similarly traces the cyclical nature of life, death and rebirth.
A recurring theme in Takano’s work is the celebration of generative, feminine energies. Yet, as she clarifies, these figures are not necessarily female. They include males, animals, plants—even undifferentiated beings and hybrids that have not yet become anything in particular, but still hold the full potential for transformation and transmutation. “I’ve heard that, from a chromosomal perspective, males may eventually disappear. Perhaps, from a biological standpoint, the feminine is the original form of all living things,” Takano said. Although women have been oppressed throughout history and across cultures, she believes the feminine—strong, free and flexible—is the most vital and resilient force in life.
Her works, though enigmatic in their symbolism, radiate a deep sense of joy and playfulness—qualities they share with the very nature of unfiltered imagination. Her characters are luminous, enlivened, emanating vital energy as they harmoniously connect with their surroundings and other beings, beyond any decoded linguistic or rational system. In more than one work, there’s the suggestion of spiritual illumination—a sudden flame of awareness that links inner consciousness and soul with something greater: the universe itself. “Within our bodies is embedded the entire history of life,” Takano said. “Our DNA holds the information and memories from the time we were plants, reptiles or fish. If we can access this, we may be able to journey all the way back to a place that feels like the very source of life.”
Embarking on a journey into the depths of the universally shared subconscious—where time, memory and nature entwine—Takano taps into a primordial dimension more attuned to the radiance of all cosmic life. In the spirit of Carl Jung’s notion of an archive of the collective unconscious and Michael Meade’s mythopoetic imagination, her work becomes a threshold between inner and outer worlds, where personal vision merges with ancestral myth and the mythic speaks through the self. “how deep how far we can go?”—the title of one exhibition—feels less like a question than a portal, as the exhibition transforms into a ritual site and an invitation to reconnect with nature, myth and the forgotten intelligence of the soul.
As Takano’s fantastical figures drift through otherworldly terrains and liminal dreamscapes, they ultimately suggest that the true capacities of mind and spirit can extend far beyond the limits of the physical body. Once we attune to this energetic frequency and the archetypal memory of the cosmos within, we gain access to an imaginative consciousness that draws us nearer to essence itself.
Aya Takano’s “how deep how far we can go?” is on view at Perrotin Los Angeles through August 29, 2025.
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