江口綾音筆下的粉彩世界極盡甜美，軟萌的「KUMA」如泰迪熊般穿行於夢幻花叢。然而糖衣之下暗藏冷峻，透過厚塗與罩染層次，這些以北海道棕熊為靈感的生物，悄然揭示可愛與威脅、唯美與腐朽間的詭譎張力，引領觀者審視夢境與現實表象背後潛伏的真相。

Eguchi Ayane’s pastel worlds feel irresistibly sweet — soft, fluffy KUMA bears wander through dreamy landscapes of flowers, waves, and mushrooms like gentle teddy bears come to life. Yet beneath that sugar-coated innocence lies something sharper: these Hokkaido-inspired creatures, painted with rich impasto fur and glistening glazes, quietly reveal the eerie tension between cuteness and menace, beauty and decay, day and night — inviting us to question what lurks behind the soft surfaces of our own dreams and realities.

日本藝術家江口綾音以其油畫作品中名為「KUMA」的類熊生物聞名。這些角色的靈感源自北海道的棕熊，在超現實的自然景觀中，將軟萌的可愛感與潛藏的威脅氣息巧妙揉合。她的創作深入探討生與死、表象美感與內在危險等二元對立命題；作品常採用粉彩色調，初看純真無邪，細品之下卻散發出一種令人不安的詭譎美感。

Eguchi Ayane is a Japanese artist renowned for her oil paintings featuring quasi-bear figures called “KUMA,” inspired by Hokkaido’s brown bears, which blend cuteness with underlying menace in surreal natural landscapes. Her works explore dualities like life and death, surface beauty and hidden danger, using a pastel palette that shifts from innocent to eerie upon closer view.

江口綾音於 1985 年出生於日本北海道，並於 2011 年取得 Kanazawa College of Art 的油畫碩士學位。她的藝術足跡遍及全球，曾於各地舉辦個展，包括 2025 年在臺北的 Hiro Hiro Art Space。其作品亦頻繁亮相於日本、台灣、新加坡、菲律賓、印尼、中國與美國。藝術生涯的亮點包括參與 Art Basel Hong Kong，並曾榮獲 KANABI Creative Award 2010 的評審特別獎。

Born in Hokkaido, Japan, in 1985, Eguchi Ayane earned her M.A. in oil painting from Kanazawa College of Art in 2011. She has held solo exhibitions worldwide, including Hiro Hiro Art Space in Taipei (2025), with shows in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, China, and the US. Her career highlights include participation in Art Basel Hong Kong and awards like the Special Jury Award in the KANABI Creative Award 2010.

江口綾音的畫風具有層次分明的超現實感，將泰迪熊般可愛的 KUMA 置於變幻莫測且充滿險阻的自然界中——波浪、花卉、蕈類與暗流，皆隱喻著暴力與腐朽。在美學表現上，她以柔和的粉彩色系營造第一眼的「純真」印象，隨後揭示出充滿肉質感且鮮明的肌理，呈現出可愛與殘酷、白晝與黑夜、夢境與現實之間的張力。核心元素 KUMA 在受「千花紋」（millefleurs）掛毯與北海道野生生物啟發的動態風景中穿梭，形成如賦格曲（fugue）般節奏明快、在細微變化中不斷重複的敘事。

Eguchi’s style is surreal and layered, juxtaposing adorable teddy bear-like KUMAs with treacherous, mercurial nature—waves, flowers, mushrooms, and undercurrents that hint at violence and decay. The aesthetic employs a soft pastel palette for an initial “innocent” impression, revealing fleshy, vivid textures and emotional tension between cute and cruel, day/night, or dream/reality. Key components include recurring KUMA motifs as active agents in dynamic landscapes, inspired by millefleurs tapestries and Hokkaido wildlife, creating rhythmic, fugue-like repetitions with subtle variations.

她主要使用畫布油彩，將顏料視為一種具觸感的物質，試圖透過視覺喚起觸覺記憶。她的技法包括：利用厚塗法（impasto）以點狀筆觸堆疊出蓬鬆的毛髮質感；在顏料未乾時進行刮擦以交織層次；並運用半透明的罩染（glazing）技術來營造色彩偏移與深度，模擬生命中堆積與侵蝕的循環。這種手法打造出一種「如血肉般鮮活」的質地，讓觀者能感受到物質的厚度，正呼應了她對賦格比喻中那種重複且不斷演進的創作手勢。

She primarily uses oil on canvas, treating pigment as a tactile material to evoke touch through vision. Her method involves layering thick impasto for fluffy fur (dotted applications), scraping wet paint to interweave layers, and glazing with semi-transparent washes for color shifts and depth, mimicking life’s cycles of buildup and erosion. This builds a “fleshy, vivid texture” where viewers sense materiality, aligning with her fugue metaphor of repeated, evolving gestures.

江口綾音近期的作品更趨向於探討睡眠、夢境與晝夜循環，例如 2025 年的成對作品《Children of Flowers – Day/Night》，首次出現了閉眼入睡的 KUMA。隨著 Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 的展出以及在東京舉辦的個展《Spring Sleep》，她在亞洲市場的影響力與日俱增。在當代藝術界對具觸感與敘事性繪畫興趣遞增的背景下，她這種充滿對立張力的超現實主義，正展現出強大的國際吸引力。

Eguchi’s recent works trend toward themes of sleep, dreams, and day-night cycles, as in paired paintings like “Children of Flowers – Day/Night” (2025), introducing closed-eyed KUMAs for the first time. She gains traction in Asia with exhibitions like Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 and a solo “Spring Sleep” in Tokyo, reflecting growing international appeal for her duality-driven surrealism amid rising interest in tactile, narrative-driven contemporary painting.

圖片提供：藝術家｜Courtesy of the Artist