The king 31/51, 2025

Atsuko Ishii  

Atsuko Ishii is a Japanese artist who has been living in France since 1995 and is dedicated to the art of engraving: color printing of etching.

She rarely draws, as she considers the copper plate as a paper sheet on which she expresses herself. In addition to the etching technique she adds a bonding system of Japanese paper (ex. The bodies), stencils for the colored surfaces, or embossing for some elements (pair of cherries, dog, beetle, beating heart...).

Prints are always in limited edition and no intervention of the artist is done directly on the paper. The precision of the line on the copper plate, the thin cuts that are used for the stencil show the complete master of this ancestral complex technique. The universe of Atsuko Ishii remains resolutely modern, beyond the engraving traditional framework - both literally and figuratively.

Atsuko Ishii has a fluid approach of her creations, in a clear line. She has forged a personal vocabulary, some motifs are seen from one composition to another: characters, fruits, architectural elements, landscapes, signs, etc. appear and then disappear. At first glance her engravings seem full of naivety, but they are most of the time full of mischief.

Through the years, drawings are more common and the vocabulary is enriched as well as the colors. Some of her artistic compositions make you think of all-overs, where characters and animals seem to emerge from a colorful flower carpet.