Hirofumi Takemoto

Hirofumi Takemoto is a Japanese artist who captures in his work the immense diversity and vibrancy of Japanese culture.   

Takemoto creates images inspired by Kitagawa Utamaro’s large-headed pictures of female beauties. Utamaro was one of the most important designers of Ukiyo-e (a genre of Japanese art very popular from the 17th to the 19th century, which means “pictures of the floating world”.  Utamaro’s drawings of women were based in real prostitutes and socially oppressed women.  Based on that, Takemoto re-creates pictures of beautiful women using Western painting techniques. 

He studied Western art at Osaka University of Arts, but is also influenced by various  artists and perspectives. 

Takemoto finds inspiration in the works of many contemporary professionals, such as, photographers August Sandre and Edward Steichen, film directors Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, and Federico Fellini, the stage director Shuji Terayama, cultural anthropologist Masao Yamaguchi, novelist Kenzaburo Oe, Dostoyevsky and even Seiji Ozawa. 

His inspiration also comes from the old masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Jan van Eyck and Antony Gormley.  In hie world vision, Takemoto aims to create works that will trigger richness through sheer diversity.

 

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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Solo Exhibitions:

2018 "People of the 18th century" Contemporary Art and Spirits (CAS), Osaka

2018 "Everyone is dead Tokyo" YW Gallery, Tokyo

2017 "Everyone is dead" Enokojima creates Osaka, Osaka

2002 "Serpent killing" Gallery Yamaguchi, Tokyo

2000 "Scaly garden" City Gallery, Osaka

2000 "Sugoroku referee" Gallery Yamaguchi, Tokyo

1999 "Spider's house" City Gallery, Osaka

1998 "Study for moving around" City Gallery, Osaka

1998 "Mythical time" ABC Gallery, Osaka

1997 "Hiruko's aesthetics" Contemporary Art Center, Osaka

1997 "A bad Hobby" City Gallery, Osaka

1996 "Contemporary art of the Emperor's country" Shinanobashi Gallery, Osaka

1995 "The underworld Pilgrimage" Ban Gallery, Osaka

1994 "Adventure of festival space" Shinanobashi Gallery 5, Osaka

1993 "Art as a magic" Gallery Iteza, Kyoto

1993 "My Origin" Ban Gallery, Osaka

1992 "Dedicating to Toba spriest" Gallery Iteza, Kyoto

1991 "Process poetics" Ban Gallery, Osaka

Group Exhibitions:

2019 "Pilot plant" Contemporary Art and Spirits (CAS), Osaka

2003 "Animal Heart" Gallery Yamaguchi, Tokyo

2000 "Tokyo Tatami Space Exhibition" Tatsumi Orimoto House, Kanagawa