is a prolific pop artist and manga artist who has had exhibitions and shows in museums and galleries in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and as well as across Japan.

Art and career

Rica Takashima was born in Shinjuku

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan and lived in Suginami-ward Tokyo. After graduating with a Design Degree from

Tokyo University of the Arts or is the most prestigious art school in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, and Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained renowned artists in the fields of painting, scul ...

, Takashima worked as a stage set artist and a freelance illustrator. In 1994, she founded and launched the avant-garde street art show troupe and studio Aozora Art with using Peekaboo-kun (顔出クンKaodashi-kun), a life-sized sculpture device consisting of a painted piece of board with a cut-out hole for the participants to stick their faces through, on Tokyo's

Harajuku is a district in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Harajuku is the common name given to a geographic area spreading from Harajuku Station to Omotesando, corresponding on official maps of Shibuya ward as Jingūmae 1 chōme to 4 chōme. In popular refere ...

Pedestrian Street. Takashima was invited as a guest artist for several pilot art projects in Japan such as: ARCUS PROJECT in 1997, Museum City Project in 1998, Kids Art World Aomori in 2000. In 1995, Takashima started drawing the semi-autobiographical manga '' Rica 'tte Kanji!?'', which initially ran in ''Anise'', a Japanese magazine for lesbians. ''Rica 'tte Kanji!?'' was compiled and released as an English-language graphic novel by

ALC Publishing Yuricon was an anime convention geared toward fans of yuri anime and manga. The first Yuricon event was held in 2003 in Newark, New Jersey with about 200 attending, although Yuricon has existed as an online entity since 2000. The event was org ...

in 2003 and 2012 (as titled TOKYO LOVE Rica ‘tte Kanji!? ), and as an Italian version by RenBooks, Bologna, Italy in 2011. Since 2003, Takashima's four panel Manga strip "GO! NY Journey (進め！NY道 Susume! New York Dou) has appeared in Weekly NY Japion paper (Trend Pot NY LLC). She focused on her family from 2001 to 2011. After Takashima immigrated to the United States, she became a member of International Women's Artists Salon and Women in Comics. Takashima's participatory public art project ''Aliens in New York'' has been fiscally sponsored by

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

since 2013. Her manga style interactive sculpture ''El Barrio Comes in All Colors, Shapes and Sizes'' was set on Randall's Island Park 2015.

Exhibits

* 2012 "Celebrating Women" Fort Lee Public Library, New Jersey * 2010 "To Tugaru from New York"

Aomori Museum of Art The is a museum in Aomori, Japan, opened in July 2006. It is located near Sannai-Maruyama Site, which the museum's design takes inspiration from in its partially-buried structure. The museum houses more than 120 works from drawings to three-dimen ...

, Japan * 2009 "Instant Gender" New York, New York * 2008 "Feeling Much Better Through Manga Art" Secaucus, New Jersey * 2006 "Who Are You?" Tachikawa City, Japan * 2005 "Peek-A-Boo Meeting" Suginami City, Japan * 2004-1996 "Happy New Year in ''Ema''" Various venues, Japan * 2000 "Who is Miura?" Aomori Museum of Art, Japan * 2000 "Photos of Aozora Art" Moscow, Russia * 1999 "Order Made Family" Inokashira Park, Japan

References

External links

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Snap Happy Photo
Aliens from New York Exhibit (Japanese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Takashima, Rica Living people Manga artists from Tokyo Women manga artists Japanese female comics artists Female comics writers Year of birth missing (living people)