Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Daisuke Takeya
The Whale

2023

About the Item

Daisuke Takeya’s “No Man’s Land” is his 5th solo exhibition with the gallery, presenting a new series distinct from, and yet analogous to, the parts of his practice that have been exhibited with the gallery over the past 20 years. Takeya’s previous show at the CCG, “Breaking the Waves,” was connected to the aftermath of the devastating 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. This exhibition picks up where he left off, revisiting Fukushima’s ‘no man’s lands’ a decade after the accident, through the lens of a global pandemic. Two of the contemplative portraits in the show were painted in the desolate landscapes of the coastal areas of the Fukushima Prefecture that had been abandoned due to radiation, with the local population slowly returning to their homes in recent years. The remaining six paintings are set in different countries, in environments left empty due to health advisories during the COVID pandemic. In a time of complete isolation, Takeya traversed borders and restrictions to capture these life-size portraits of women from around the world. In contrast to his previous portrait series, these paintings depict the subjects within specific but unrecognizable settings, anonymizing the sitter’s identity and their location. The series travels through indistinguishable environments and nameless subjects to examine human connection in a time of enforced separation. “No Man’s Land” is characterized by Takeya’s masterful rendering of skin and landscape, continuing his ongoing “struggle of technique,” balancing the tactile texture of thick coats of oil paint and the minuscule details that have come to define his canvases. Having been trained in figurative painting at the New York Academy of Art, Takeya’s women subjects reflect the changing landscape of the bijinga genre in 20th-century Japan, which saw polarized reactions to the subject matter of beautiful women (bijin) being painted in the yōga (western) style. But Takeya’s bijins do not reflect the ideal of one empire’s standardized gender dynamics, instead, they represent a postcolonial exploration of the classical genre – international, diverse, and unsystematic. This series follows his previous connection-based portraits series, eyes of a child, in which Takeya painted 200 of his students and recreated their artwork to investigate the ‘origin of creativity,’ and his series documenting survivors of human trafficking and sex slavery committed by the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII. The latter portraits have yet to be exhibited, as their premiere at the Cultural Center of the Philippines has been postponed since the outbreak of the pandemic. In addition to the new portraits, “No Man’s Land” will feature a condensed survey of Takeya’s 20 years with the gallery, including pieces from the Everybody Loves You series – diptychs of Torontonians juxtaposed with the Manhattan skyline. The North Gallery will feature two large-scale paintings from the Kara series that he is perhaps most known for, expansive abstract skies with diminutive city/landscapes at the bottoms of the canvases. Memoir of Fukushima, from the 2016 exhibition “Breaking the Waves” will also be on display.
  • Creator:
    Daisuke Takeya (1970, Japanese, Canadian)
  • Creation Year:
    2023
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 38 in (96.52 cm)Width: 48 in (121.92 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Toronto, CA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 101381stDibs: LU2543214052852
More From This SellerView All
  • Country Bath (self portrait)
    By Gordon Rayner
    Located in Toronto, CA
    As a young person, Gordon Rayner learned to paint from his father, a commercial artist and weekend painter, and from his father`s close friend, Jack Bush. He spent 17 years working i...
    Category

    1990s Nude Paintings

    Materials

    Acrylic, Canvas

  • Untitled
    Located in Toronto, CA
    Daisuke Takeya’s “No Man’s Land” is his 5th solo exhibition with the gallery, presenting a new series distinct from, and yet analogous to, the parts of his practice that have been ex...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Animal Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Winter Tale
    Located in Toronto, CA
    Daisuke Takeya’s “No Man’s Land” is his 5th solo exhibition with the gallery, presenting a new series distinct from, and yet analogous to, the parts of his practice that have been ex...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • At The Bridge
    Located in Toronto, CA
    Daisuke Takeya’s “No Man’s Land” is his 5th solo exhibition with the gallery, presenting a new series distinct from, and yet analogous to, the parts of his practice that have been ex...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • A Cumulonimbus
    Located in Toronto, CA
    Daisuke Takeya’s “No Man’s Land” is his 5th solo exhibition with the gallery, presenting a new series distinct from, and yet analogous to, the parts of his practice that have been ex...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • No Man's Land
    Located in Toronto, CA
    Daisuke Takeya’s “No Man’s Land” is his 5th solo exhibition with the gallery, presenting a new series distinct from, and yet analogous to, the parts of his practice that have been ex...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like
  • Entanglement in Red and Blue- 21st Century Contemporary Portrait of a woman
    Located in Nuenen, Noord Brabant
    Alejandro Casanova Entanglement in Red and Blue 130 x 89 cm oil on canvas The Spanish artist Alejandro Casanova lives and works in Tenerife, where ...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Playing around- 21st Century Contemporary Portrait of a woman
    Located in Nuenen, Noord Brabant
    Alejandro Casanova Playing around 100 x 100 cm oil on canvas The Spanish artist Alejandro Casanova lives and works in Tenerife, where he moved afte...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Summer. 2021. Oil on canvas, 70x70 cm
    Located in Riga, LV
    Summer. 2021. Oil on canvas, 70x70 cm Colorful bright artwork with two girls Nugzar Avtandilovich Kahiani was born in Poti, Georgia in 1952. He studied at the Art College named after Nikoladze. Then he went to serve in the Soviet Army from1970 to 1972. After completing his military service he entered the Stieglitz St. Petersburg State Academy of Art and Industry at the faculty of artistic metal, from which he graduated in 1986. During his studies, he has been actively engaged in painting. His favorite artists are Gauguin, El Greco, Botticelli, Turner and Picasso. Works of artistic stone He worked also with stone, cornelian and onyx. But his soul gravitated to bright and blustery color, and so he has became engaged in painting. At first his paintings were quiet, with muted tonal gamma. The color image was built on the play of hues and halftones. Such a careful elaboration of color educates the taste, sharpness and delicacy of vision. Gradually, the painter became more experienced, and his paintings acquired assurance and power of maturity, blooming in colorful brilliancy. Nugzar's color preferences The color of Nugzar’s paintings is deep and multi-layered. It is woven of infinite number of hues and filled with light. At first sight it may be difficult to recognize the shapes in the play of flickering color dabs. The figures appear gradually, they draw the first breath just before our eyes, crystallizing from the color heap. The painter is attracted by major tonality and motives that years ago could be called “the gallant feasts” - repasts, assiduities, music parties, and airings. After somewhat daemonic, infernal imagery of early paintings, it has appeared the theme of “Le joie de vivre,” the joy of life. Source of inspiration Born in the ancient Kolkhida, he keeps the blissful pagan feel of entirety and completeness of being. It is embodied almost literally in his favorite personage auroral gorgeous-bodied beauty of a girl. He grants these forms even to Olympian inhabitants - Aphrodite, Athene, Arthemide, let alone the Bacchants. I remember unwittingly that Niko Pirosmani similarly painted on his impoverished buckrams the luxurious prince repasts and languid, elephantine beauties. Working style But his style is not bounded by grotesque parody, as well as the irony is not the only aspect of his world outlook. In his landscapes we can catch the ecstatic admiration with Nature. In contradistinction to his favorite impressionists, he never paints from nature and never bears in mind the particular place. It is just a blooming Earth, studied very closely, so that the trees are cut by the edges of the painting, and at the same time it is a bird’s eye view revealing infinite, boundless spaces. Nougzar says that the landscape for him is first of all a color ensemble. He can just leaf through the illustrated journal, nourishing his eye with color in various combinations, and so get the impulse to create a ‘physical’ landscape image. Probably, his landscapes are no less fantastical than his figure compositions, but such is his talent, his mission - to make the world more beautiful and gentle than it is in reality. Exhibitions Nugzar Kakhiani...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • 10-11-9 - 21st Century, Contemporary, Nude Painting, Oil on Canvas
    By Montse Valdés
    Located in Barcelona, Catalonia
    “I paint the human figure and explore further till I reach the Beauty of Being, the Soul.. the part of Human Being where everything is in total Serenity, Goodness and Harmony, where ...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Nude Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Canvas

  • "Andrea" Portrait Painting: Oil on Canvas, Figurative, Nude
    By Grace Graupe-Pillard
    Located in New York, NY
    "Andrea" Oil on Canvas Painting This painting is unique, signed on verso, and includes a certificate of authenticity. Grace Graupe-Pillard has concentrated on portraiture since her ...
    Category

    1980s Contemporary Nude Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • 1986 Intimate Couple Portrait by Mystery Artist
    Located in Larchmont, NY
    Mystery Artist Tennessee, 9/12/86 Oil on canvas 34 x 43 3/4 x 1 in. Titled and inscribed upper left
    Category

    1980s Contemporary Nude Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Canvas

Recently Viewed

View All