
1968 - BA in Political Science, International Christian University, Tokyo
1970 - MA in Linguistics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii
1968-1996 - Engaged in teaching japanese language and culture at American Universities from Hawaii to Harward
1981-1982 - Studied life drawing and figure painting with Ken Bushnell
Summer, 2004 - Studied classical realism at the Charles Cecil Studio, Florence
The Portrait Society of America
Lavit Gallery, Cork, Ireland
Woman Made Gallery, Chicago
1986 Three paintings selected in Artists of Hawaii Show, Honolulu Academy of Art, Honolulu
1996 Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA
1997 Solo Show at Club Passim, Cambridge, MA
1997 Award for the cover of ArtCalendar magazine, for Mummy Mummy
1997 Women’s Art Show at Dudley House, Harvard University, Cambridge MA
2003 Two portraits selected in Schaefer Portrait Challenge 2003, Maui Arts and Cultural Center, Maui
2003 New Members Show, The Copley Society of Art, Boston
2003 Digital image of Portrait of the Late Congresswoman Patsy Mink listed in the archive of the National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC
2003 Invited artist, The Downtown Art Show by the Hawaii Consortium for the Arts, Honolulu
2004 Admitted to the Portrait Registry at the Copley Society of Art in Boston
2005 Gallery AKUM, Vienna, Austria
2006 Portrait of a Labour Activist (Ah Quon McElrath), 9th International Open Exhibition, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago
2006 Sigmund Freud with Sphinx on display at the Sigmund-Freud Universität, Vienna, Austria
2006 Gustav Mahler (“Das Lied von der Erde”) on display at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Künste, Vienna, Austria
2009 Solo Show, ‘I'magES: Bilder von der Tiefe (Images from the Depths)’, part of Austria-Japan Year 2009, at Sigmund Freud University in Vienna, and Bergerhaus, Gumpoldskirchen, Austria
2010 Portrait of the Late Congresswoman Patsy Mink, 13th International Open Exhibition, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago
2010 ‘Die Macht Der Phantasie (Power of Fantasy)’, Grenzüberschreitende Manieristische-Phantastische Kunst (Cutting-edge Manneristic Fantastic Art)’, Barockschloss Riegersburg, Austria
2012 ‘Fantastic Generations, Uncommon Vision’, Phantasten Museum Wien at Palais Palffy, Vienna, Austria
2017 ‘Reunion II’, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago
2018 Presentation of 'A-Boys' and 'Bog Queen', comparative philosophy conference on 'Subversion and Critiques', Academy de Midi, France
2019 Invited lecturer on 'Aspects of Japanese Visual Arts: Perspectives on Landscape, Reality, Masks, and Selfportraits', workshop on comparative philosophy and aesthetics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
2019 Solo Show, 'Gesichter und Gestalten (Faces and Figures)', part of Austria-Japan Year 2019, Gallery Gewebe, Vienna, Austria
Setsuko Aihara was born and raised in Japan, and began drawing and painting in her mid-30s while continuing her university teaching career. She worked in Honolulu, Cambridge (Massachusetts), and Cork (Ireland), and now lives in Vienna. After taking a course in painting in the Venetian method, she has since then been self-taught.
As a member of society she is concerned to understand the human condition, and to express images from what she understands or does not understand. Images often come from her dreams. Her concerns range from the philosophical and depth-psychological, and cultural (synthesis of east and west), through the social, environmental, and political (especially the liberation of women), to human emancipation in general.
She is interested in narrative and allegorical paintings, especially the kinds developed in the Renaissance and the Baroque periods, which can still be viable today, since the mythical patterns underlying human behavior don’t significantly change over time.
She is also interested in creating portraits of people, as actors of dramas at various levels. She is deeply moved by the best portraits from the Renaissance period, especially by Titian’s, through which one can feel the presence of the person across a distance of five centuries. Portrait painting fascinates her because it offers the possibility of portraying the sitter’s inner being, not just a record of the person’s appearance. The face is like a doorway to the person, and the eyes windows to the soul.
On method: Setsuko is fascinated by the depth and translucency of the oil paintings created by the Old Masters using their time-consuming methods involving multiple layering and glazing. Admiring the incomparable colors and profound expressiveness of the Venetian paintings, she chose to paint using the Venetian method.
On skills: Painting continues for Setsuko to demand a high degree of skill and craft. The time spent in developing the necessary skills is validated by the expressive power they can achieve.
On structure or composition: This is crucial for art works in whatever medium. Setsuko takes time to learn from studying the composition of past masterpieces, and also the structure of literary, theatrical and musical works. She works out the composition of each painting carefully after the idea is conceived and relevant studies and readings are completed.
Art isn’t over and done with in the postmodern period, since the works of the past can continue to move us and enhance our understanding of the human condition and the world we live in. It’s up to the artist whether we can keep art and culture alive so that they can continue to enrich our lives.
- Eagle and Serpent, drawing for the cover of Nietzsche and Asian Thought, edited by Graham Parkes (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1991)
- Nietzsche, Freud, Wagner, Schopenhauer, et al., drawing for the cover of Composing the Soul, by Graham Parkes (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1994)
- Zarathustra by the Sea, oil painting for the cover of Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Oxford Classics, translated by Graham Parkes (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005)
- Ivy Leaves, pastel drawing, KulturAXE book project Eat Art, Austria Japan Year 2009
- Sigmund Freud with Sphinx and Gustav Mahler (Song of the Earth), opera program (Tokyo Nikikai Opera Company, Tokyo, 2010)
- Gustav Mahler (“Song of the Earth”), Nikikai Tsushin vol. 286 (Tokyo Nikikai Opera Company, Tokyo 2011)
- Zarathustra by the Sea, oil painting for the cover of the Korean translation of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Hangsuk Doo (Boobooks, Seoul, 2012)
- Plumeria, drawing for the cover of Elémire Zolla, Il conoscitore di segreti, una biografia intellectuale, by Grazia Marchiano (Venice, 2012)
- Self-Surgery, in Lexikon der Phantastischen Künstlerinnen & Künstler, Surrealiten/Phantasten/Symbolisten/Visionäre, 2nd Editon, Prof. Gerhard Habarta, (Internationales Archiv Fantatischer Künstler, Vienna 2013)
- Bog Queen, Self Surgery and Arnold Schoenberg: tonal Variations in Lexikon der Phantastischen Künsterinnen, Surrealistinnen/Phantastinnen/Symbolistinnen/Visionärinnen, 1 st Edition, Prof. Gerhard Habarta, (Internationales Archiv Fantatischer Künstler, Vienna 2017)
- Gaia's Victory over Prometheus, drawing for the cover of How to Think of the CLIMATE CRISIS, A Philosophical Guide to Saner Ways of Living, by Graham Parkes (Bloomsbury, London, 2020)
Setsuko’s works are both in public and private collections.