Collaboration with Takuma Tanaka
"Shogun — The Strike" — A Fine Art Collaboration with Takuma Tanaka
"Oni Musha — The Demon Warrior"
"The Moment Before the Draw" — A Fine Art Collaboration with Takuma Tanaka
"Standing Shogun" — A Fine Art Collaboration with Takuma Tanaka
"Shogun" — A Fine Art Collaboration with Takuma Tanaka
田中 拓馬 / Tanaka Takuma
Born in 1977. A painter whose greatest strength lies in abstract expression.
What is perception? From an early age, I found myself thinking deeply about human existence and the mysteries of life — and so I spent much of my childhood lost in books.
Among the thinkers I encountered, none shaped my life more profoundly than Takaaki Tachibana, a man widely regarded as a giant of human intellect. I wanted to study under him directly. I left the university I was attending and began preparing for the entrance examinations to the University of Tokyo, where Tachibana taught. I did not succeed. Instead, I found my way to his ideas through the books he left behind.
I believe art is connected to every field of knowledge. The pigments in paint belong to chemistry. Selling a finished work belongs to economics and marketing. Painting something that draws people in requires an understanding of psychology. And creating work that is raw or confrontational brings the law into the picture as well.
My subjects range widely — beginning with questions of DNA, and extending to trees growing from heads, cake ships, capitalism, human sushi, and more. These themes may appear unrelated at first glance, but like the anthropological work of Tachibana, I believe they all branch from a single root. They are connected.
I intend to keep following my curiosity — learning, studying, and exploring whatever captures my attention next. (From the artist's official website)
Awards / Art Fairs
2023 — The Palm Beach Art Fair, The Wall Art Gallery
2021 — London, Focus Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery
2020 — Paris, Focus Art Fair Paris
2012 — New York, The Art Takes Times Square Competition, Times Square
— Miami, SCOPE Miami Art Fair, Art Takes Miami
Biography
2003 — Graduated from the Faculty of Law, Waseda University
2009 — Studied under Kenjiro Okazaki at Yotsuya Art Studium, Tokyo
Solo Exhibitions
2023 — Tokyo, Shinjuku Marui Men
2023 — New York, Salmagundi Art Club
2023 — Tokyo, Gallery M
2022 — Tokyo, Takuma Tanaka Studio
2021 — Tokyo, Takuma Tanaka Studio
2015 — New York, Chashama Gallery
2013 — Shanghai, J Art Gallery
2012 — Shanghai, J Art Gallery
2011 — Shanghai, J Art Gallery
2010 — Shanghai, J Art Gallery
2009 — Osaka, Edge Gallery
2007 — Saitama, Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
2006 — Tokyo, Gallery Hayashi
— Saitama, Rakufu Gallery
Group Exhibitions
2022 — Miami, The Wall Art Gallery
2014 — Taiwan, Chen Liu Art Museum
2010 — Vancouver, Rufus Lin Gallery
2009 — Tochigi, Tochigino Exhibition
2008 — Tokyo, The 82nd Kokuten Exhibition
2007 — Tokyo, Ueno Royal Museum Grand Prize Exhibition
— Tokyo, The 81st Kokuten Exhibition, Kokugakai Association, National Art Center, Tokyo
2006 — Tokyo, Sekaido Grand Prize Exhibition
— Chiba, Neko Neko Exhibition
2005 — Tokyo, Nika Exhibition
Public Collections
Belfast — Ulster Museum, National Museums Northern Ireland
Tokyo — Waseda University
Saitama — Saitama Prefectural Urawa High School
(From the artist's official website)
