TAKERU AMANO
JAPAN . 1977
Born in 1977 in Tokyo, Takeru Amano came into the world with a pencil in his hand. In his family, drawing was part of everyday life, so much so that he never attended art school. What could a school have taught him that he did not already know? The artist we celebrate today was already there within him.
His world — singular and childlike — draws on the late twentieth-century Japanese culture he grew up in. Takeru Amano blends classical, philosophical and even mythological subjects with neo-pop aesthetics and, often, a touch of humour. References to Renaissance painting, and to the motif of Venus above all, meet a pop and minimalist sensibility: figures with stylised forms and a quiet sensuality, held between classical icon and contemporary image.
Picture a Venus holding a lemon, or the Virgin Mary sketched in vivid neon. Seeing these familiar Western icons through a Tokyo pop lens can be surprising, even surreal.
His practice also extends into still life and landscape, where refined compositions carry atmosphere, balance and a restrained narrative. The recent Roadscape series treats the road as a cinematic space — an open horizon unfolding between movement, memory and the unknown.
His work has been exhibited in Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, London, Paris and other cities in Japan and abroad, admired as a bridge between the painterly tradition and the modern age. His works are held in private collections worldwide.
