Takeya Daisuke / Beautiful Kyoto
2010 10 1 fri. - 10 11 mon.
10:00-18:00
Gallery Shibunkaku >>access map
386 Motomachi Furumonzen-Dori Yamato-Oji
Higashi-Iru Higashiyama-Ku Kyoto, Japan 605-0089
TEL +81 (0)75 761 0001
E-mail gallery@shibunkaku.co.jp
Gallery Shibunkaku is pleased to exhibit new works by Toronto, Canada-based artist Daisuke Takeya. Entitled Kyoto-Bikei (Beautiful Kyoto), this exhibition ranges from cityscapes to portraits of local people, depicted during the artist’s two months residency in Kyoto. For this very peculiar surroundings of old and new Japan and the context and mission of Shibukaku, which represents important antique art collections from different historical period of Japan, Takeya created folding panels and scrolls exploring the similarities and differences between the techniques of Renaissance and Baroque oil painting of Western/ European culture and traditional Japanese -Nihonga to echo his life being experienced in both cultures.
Takeya was born and raised in Japan, studied at School of Visual Arts and New York Academy of Art in the States, and currently works internationally, traveling in and out from Toronto. Takeya’s practice is comprised of the exploration of nature and plausibility in contemporary society, and hinges on all kinds of double meanings. Combining fields of painting, sculpture and installation, his work emphasizes process in terms of creativity, production and collaboration, and attempts to approach an understanding of context and environment. Its primary characteristic is that he sees production as a process of putting himself in a particular place, and then understanding it.
His project entitled Kara (“Kara”, the Chinese ideogram for “sky”, also meaning “emptiness”), ongoing since 2002, has been described as a “hybrid of abstraction and representation in contemporary landscape painting”. Seen from a distance, urban and natural landscapes lose their characteristics in these paintings, emphasizing the emptiness of sky, and accentuating its beauty. Bird’s-eye vistas echo the artist’s unique vision, as well as perspectives developed through, and influenced by, his experiences living in various international locations. The empty sky extends endlessly around the globe and absorbs the universe, yet seems intangible. Takeya’s brand-new landscapes implies selflessness, and expresses fundamental questions about the existence of human beings.
The artist will be present at the gallery during the exhibit to continue working on his second piece of a diptych, a folding screen painting following the first one; Godly mountains, fire walk with me, a night panoramic scape of mountains surrounding the city of Kyoto on the day of “ Gosan Okuribi” one of the iconic festivals of Japan, in which five giant bonfires are lit on mountains surrounding the city, signifying the moment when the spirits of deceased family members, who are said to visit this world during summer, are believed to be returning to the spirit world—thus the name Okuribi (roughly, "send-off fire").
During exhibition Takeya will be staying and painting on 2nd floor.
Enjoy every process a piece of work completes with him.
Congratulations to Mr. Takeya!
He will be featured to create a portrait of a celebrity in Bravo’s “Star Portraits” this fall, with a sitter Mr. Craig Kielburger who is a three time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and the second youngest recipient of the Order of Canada. Mr. Takeya and Mr. Kielburger found common ground within children’s creativity and it surely gave Mr. Takeya an additional perspective to his artistic endeavor.
http://starportraits.ca/meet-the-artists/daisuke-takeya
■Artist Biography
Daisuke Takeya is a contemporary artist currently based in Toronto, Canada, whose practice is comprised of the exploration of nature and plausibility in contemporary society, and hinges on all kinds of double meanings. An interdisciplinary artist combining fields of painting, sculpture and installation, Takeya has exhibited internationally in contexts ranging from the commercial and public, to educational.
Takeya’s recent projects include : "Everybody Loves You" was inspired by his name "Daisuke" is often mispronounced as "Dai-su-ki", in North America , eyes of a child, an exhibition and artist book investigating children's creativity and aesthetics, and "Kara", a series of landscape paintings of large abstraction of sky and a city seen from a distance depictied in the manner of hyper realizm..
Takeya is currently the programming committee member of Gendai , a public art gallery , where he initiated and curated the first three New Creators Series (Toronto, 2006, 2009, 2010), and is represented by Christopher Cutts Gallery in Canada.
The recipient of a BFA from the School of Visual Arts (New York), and MFA from the New York Academy of Art, Takeya was awarded a Mid-Career Grant from the Ontario Arts Council (Canada) in 2009.
Selected Solo exhibitions
Christopher Cutts Gallery (Toronto, 2010, 2006, 2001)
Showcase/ Megumi Ogita Gallery (Tokyo, 2010)
Pouch Cove Foundation (New Foundland, 2008, 2006)
The Japan Foundation, Toronto (2008)
The Embassy of Japan in Canada (2008)
Wagner College Gallery (NY, 2006)
Kyoto Art Center (Japan, 2006)
Kitakyushu Municipal Art Museum Annex (Japan, 2006)
Galeria Punt (Kurashiki, 2006)
Prince Takamado Gallery at the Embassy of Canada in Japan (2004)
Selected group exhibitions
Nuit Blanche (Canada's largest annual one night only art festival, Toronto, 2007, 2006)
BAGART (at Art Metropole, Toronto, 2010)
NO ISBN (at Neue Kunst Galerie, Leipzig, 2010)
Titles IV (at Musée d'art de Joliette, Montreal, 2010)
Galerie St Laurant + Hill (Ottawa, 2009)
SUPER PHAT (at SVA gallery, NY, 2008)
Begonã Malone Gallery (Madrid, 2006)
Edward Day gallery (Toronto, 2000)
Michael Gibson gallery (London, Ontario, 2000)
'eyes of a child'
'Children's artwork - it has two meanings.
Artwork created by children and artwork depicting children.'
This book is published to commemorate the solo exhibition, 'eyes of a child' held at the Prince Takamado Gallery at the Embassy of Canada in Japan as part of Japan-Canada 75th anniversary events. The book is designed by a Japanese package designer Akiyo Kamijyo and a Canadian graphic designer Robert Moreau.
Colour 88 pages in English and Japanese with life size portraits of children and reproductions of children's artwork, text by Goro Suzuki, Dialogue with Atsuko Harada, and dialogue with third graders.
Published 2005 by Ikkei Shobo Press
ISBN4-87074-137-7
45 CAD, 40USD,
■Works
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| Isshiki beach,2008 | 33 prayers for Phoebe Tsang (self portrait),2010 |
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| Godly mountains, fire walk with me (work in progress),2010 | |
