Meiko Ando - Spirit of the Lake

Spirit of the Lake

Meiko Ando (b. Tokyo, Japan) is a printmaker and dancer/choreographer based in Toronto who received a B.A. from University of Waterloo where she studied fine arts and dance.

Meiko was an artist-in residence for the internationally recognized artist group Boreal Art/Nature in Quebec. In Toronto she has exhibited at Artword Theatre & Gallery and at the Creative Spirit Art Centre. In 2006 her work was chosen for juried print show at John B. Aird Gallery in Toronto. She was a recipient of Arts Toronto Protégé Honors in Toronto (1999). Recent publications of her work include “Woman Critiqued” (University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 2006) and “Bad Girls of Japan” (Palgrave Macmillan, N.Y.C., 2005).

In 2007, Meiko was invited to create a linocut for the print portfolio BESTIARIO & NAHUALES 2, on the theme of Bestiary (beasts) and Nahuales (guardian animal spirits), an international collaboration presented by Arceo Press at Casa Michoacan Gallery in Chicago. This exhibition travelled to the El Paso Museum of Art in Texas. In June 2008, an exhibit of prints by Meiko was part of the World Washi Summit organized by the Japan Foundation in Toronto.

The images of Meiko’s prints often emerge as a result of Meiko’s dance performances. The images are dreamlike in a sense that it is about the unknown that exists but invisible to our eyes.