Makoto Chi – it's a hard world for little feelings

Makoto Chi is a Canadian visual artist and tattooist of mixed Japanese and Jewish heritage, now based in Western Massachusetts, United States. Graduating from Emily Carr University with a Bachelor's Degree in Illustration in 2015, their image-making practice engages with the use of folkloric and fantastical figures to evoke emotive drama. Makoto takes interest in power relations and ontological distinctions between individuals, and explores the tension between the individual and their environment. While their flourishing tattoo practice was put on hold during the pandemic, they have returned to mark-making as a way to burrow into other worlds and revivify their process with magic, action and revolutionary thinking.

Read our interview with Makoto to learn more about their art practice.

Artworks will appear below from 7:00am on Friday, 8 October.