Maiko Kobayashi

Maiko Kobayashi is a Japanese artist based in Tokyo, working primarily in mixed media on Japanese washi paper mounted on canvas. Using acrylic, colored pencil, charcoal, and sometimes oil pastel, she creates her distinctive “Liminal Creatures,” ambiguous beings that blend elements of humans and animals. These figures quietly witness the world and feel it in their own way, embodying both human fragility and the fundamental vitality of being alive. Through them, Kobayashi explores the dignity of simply existing in a complex and often absurd world, and the subtle emotional shifts that arise from traces of compassion, courage, and other resilient stirrings of the human mind.

Kobayashi studied Art Practice at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne, where she earned a Master of Arts with Distinction in 2008, following earlier training in scenography and display at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. She has presented solo exhibitions such as Beyond Gaze Into Self at Gallery Joeun (Seoul, 2024), HOME at Aishonanzuka (Hong Kong, 2024), and BE HERE, FOR SURE at GR Gallery (New York, 2023), as well as others in Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Her work has appeared in group exhibitions including VOCA – The Vision of Contemporary Art at The Ueno Royal Museum (Tokyo, 2011) and Good Morning Japan at the Nassima Landau Art Foundation (Tel Aviv, 2023). She is represented by Gallery Joeun (Seoul), AISHO (Tokyo), and GR Gallery (New York).

Since childhood, Kobayashi has felt a deep connection to small animals and to plush toys, which she speaks to as companions rather than treating them as inanimate objects. This early intimacy with wordless, in-between beings gradually evolved into the liminal creatures that now form her artistic language and act as quiet counterparts to the viewer’s own inner self.


Artist Statement

I am a Japanese artist who has been drawing my creatures for more than twenty years. They first appeared when I needed a “third creature” that was neither a specific human nor an animal, but something close enough to speak on my behalf. Even now, they remain ambiguous beings that blend elements of humans and animals, quietly witnessing what is happening in our world and feeling it in their own way.

As I learn more about the world, I become increasingly aware of its complexity and absurdity, and at times I feel powerless. Yet when I sense traces of compassion, courage, and other positive stirrings of the human mind that people continue to carry even in such circumstances, I am deeply moved. This desire to give form to these emotional shifts, and to articulate the dignity of simply “existing” in this world, is what drives my practice. The Liminal Creatures I depict hold both human fragility and the fundamental vitality of being alive within their boundary-like existence.

My paintings are built up with layers of acrylic, colored pencil, charcoal, and sometimes oil pastel on Japanese washi paper mounted on canvas. I think of this paper as akin to human vitality—thin, strong, delicate, and enduring. I scratch, wipe, and repaint so that the accumulated layers of marks create a sense of life force within the work. For me, painting is less about “applying” color and more about forming a two-dimensional presence with its own weight and life. I do not want to impose a specific emotion on the viewer; it is enough if, in encountering these creatures, someone feels as though they are facing their own inner self, or simply meeting a “special friend” for a brief moment.


https://maikok.com/