Aiko/Montana 'Tokyo Pink' Can Available

Artist: Aiko
Title: MTN Spray Can
Medium: Custom Printed Montana Can in Box
Size: Spray Paint Can Size
Edition: 500
Price: $50

 

Aiko is a Japanese born street artist and printmaker who became one of the original members of the New York collective FAILE. Born Aiko Nakagawa in Tokyo in 1975, she studied filmmaking and graphic design before moving to New York City in 1997. There she met Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller, and together they formed the trio that would evolve into FAILE, wheat-pasting layered pop culture collages across downtown walls.

Within the collective Aiko brought a refined stencil technique and a feminine perspective, often inserting elegant female silhouettes, kimono patterns and delicate line work amid the group’s chaotic posters. She documented early street missions on camera and helped develop the ripped, multi-layer aesthetic that became FAILE’s signature. In 2006 she left the group to pursue solo projects, adopting the moniker Lady Aiko, and quickly gained recognition for her own imagery: geishas, butterflies and a recurring bunny motif first sprayed on a bathroom door in Banksy’s London studio.

Today Aiko works on canvas, wood and large outdoor walls from Brooklyn to Miami, Tokyo and Berlin. Her process still relies on hand-cut stencils, gold leaf and spray paint, blending ukiyo-e influences with contemporary street energy. Murals such as Lady With Parasol in Little Italy and Geisha Walk on the Bowery have become landmarks, while gallery exhibitions in New York, London and Paris present limited edition prints that sell out rapidly. By merging Japanese iconography with punk attitude, Aiko continues to expand the dialogue between Eastern tradition and Western street culture, proving that grace and rebellion can coexist on the same wall.