Lady Aiko has been a hugely influential force in the “urban art” scene for significantly longer than there has even been an “urban art” scene. Since moving from Tokyo to New York in the early 90s Aiko has been a constant presence and has collaborated with or even played a pivotal roll in the early careers of industry giants such as Takashi Murakami, Faile, Banksy, and Martha Cooper just to name a few. Her solo work focuses primarily on hand cut stencils for which she has developed an instantly recognizable technique. Mixing Japanese aesthetics with images from her travels and life experience as well as pop culture, her work speaks to themes of Feminism, innocence and love. It was a great pleasure to sit down with Aiko during her short trip to Berlin to paint a collaborative mural with Martha Cooper on the facade of the Urban Nation Museum.