Traces of the Last Battle
Aya Rodriguez-Izumi

GALLERY I

February 15 – March 16, 2025

Closing event: Saturday, March 15, from 5–8pm

A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to announce Traces of the Last Battle, a solo exhibition of new drawings and video work by A.I.R. New York Artist Aya Rodriguez-Izumi.

Traces of the Last Battle builds upon the work Rodriguez-Izumi created in dialogue with the book Okinawa’s Tragedy: Sketches from the Last Battle of WWII for her 2018 Fellowship exhibition, TC-1. The Battle of Okinawa, which ended in 1945, was the largest naval assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II, and claimed the lives of an estimated 100–150,000 of the then 300–500,000 local and civilian population. Written by William T. Randall, the publication of Okinawa’s Tragedy in 1987 marked the first time that first-hand Okinawan experiences of the battle were translated into English. The book, which was intended initially to serve as a learning tool for Okinawan college students, was illustrated by woodblock prints created by Rodriguez-Izumi’s father, José Rodríguez. In this exhibition, Rodriguez-Izumi transforms blown up reproductions of her father’s prints with colorful, energetic interventions in pastel, creating a collaboration between generations, histories, and time.

Alongside these drawings, Rodriguez-Izumi presents a new video work where she reads a chapter from Okinawa’s Tragedy that has been translated into Uchinaaguchi, the indigenous language of Okinawa, which was outlawed in 1879 when the island chain was annexed by Japan. This chapter is drawn from Rodriguez-Izumi’s ongoing project to translate the text in collaboration with Uchinaaguchi translator and coordinator Masashi Sakihara. By translating Okinawa’s Tragedy into Uchinaaguchi, Rodriguez-Izumi has created a new learning tool by helping to preserve a language. She returns these narratives to their origins, while also exploring the history and culture of her maternal homeland and birth.

Join us on Saturday, March 15 for a closing program featuring a vinyl listening party and a live exhibition remix by Drone Sighting, a sound and video duo composed of Javier Maria and Douglas Paulson. Homebrewed kombucha from Rodriguez-Izumi’s collaborative project with Paulson, “Scoby Club,” will also be available for sample and limited purchase. 

Aya Rodriguez-Izumi is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work blends sculpture, installation, performance, community engagement and documentation to explore aspects of ritual retention, cross-cultural identity and histories that risk erasure. She was born in Okinawa, Japan, and grew up between that island and East Harlem, NY, where she currently holds a studio. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in venues such as El Museo del Barrio, MoCADA, the NUS Museum in Singapore, the International House of Japan in Tokyo, the Taipei Fine Art Museum, The Aldrich Museum, and The Children’s Museum of Manhattan among others. She was a recipient of the A.I.R. Gallery Fellowship in New York, a Jerome Foundation Fellowship at Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota, the JUSFC Creative Artist Fellowship, the Annual Artist fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park, the Artist Alliance Inc x District 1 in-school residency program in New York, and represented Okinawa and the United States in the 2021 Benizakura  Art Annual in Hokkaido, the 2023 Romantic Route 3 Triennial in Taiwan, and the 2024-35 Yanbaru Art Festival in Okinawa. She earned a BFA in Fine Arts from Parsons the New School for Design and an MFA in Fine Arts from The School of Visuals Arts. Aya centers community building in her practice and work and brings this sensibility to her teaching in SVA's MFA Fine Art Department and at the Studio Museum in Harlem, as well as her work as a board member at the historic feminist artist-run A.I.R. Gallery.

View Aya Rodriguez-Izumi’s page here.

View the Press Release here.