Chiaki Okada | Children's book illustrator

Chiaki Okada / 岡田 千晶 is an illustrator and author of children’s books from Osaka, Japan.

Her gentle, calming artwork was selected at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2010 and she has since illustrated books by authors from around the world.

Her first picture book published in English, For All the Stars Across the Sky, was released in 2019. She lives in Japan.

Keita Morimoto / 森本啓太, 1990

Keita Morimoto was born in Osaka, Japan.

He worked in Toronto from 2006-2022 and now lives in Tokyo.

Morimoto graduated from Ontario College of Art and Design (now OCAD University) in 2012 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Morimoto is best known for his cityscapes and portraits painted with theatrical light that is reminiscent of Rembrandt and Edward Hopper.

Shinji Nakabori, 1956 | Figurative painter

Shinji Nakabori is a visual artist who was born in Tokyo, Japan.

He graduated from Japanese Painting Department at Tama Art University in 1978.

He also studied at the Art Art Students League of New York.

Several works by the artist have been sold at auction in Tokyo.

Tanaka Hideo, 1959 | Surrealist painter

Born in Fukuoka, Japan, Hideo began painting in 2009.

In 2011 he received the SHUNYOU Society Award at the 99th Shunyo Exhibition.

His first solo exhibition was in 2012 at Gallery So in Japan.

Simultaneously he kept working as creative director of the advertising agency Frontage Co. and created advertisements for some of the biggest international companies, such as Sony Music, BMW, Budweiser, and Sony.

Saitō Kazu / 斉藤 和, 1960

Born in Kyoto, Japan, Kazu Saitō graduated from Kyoto City Arts University in 1987. He explored Nihonga all the way.

In addition to retaining the fineness of texture, color, form and space in Japanese art, he transforms his aesthetic experiences and the feelings of all things in life into a poetic conception and charming aesthetics with his unique new contemporary image.

"I want to look deeply at the essence of impression, connect the moving tradition to the future, and convey the essence of that impression in a simple visual language".

Il delicato Surrealismo dell'illustratore Akira Kusaka

Akira Kusaka / 日下 明 è un illustratore e grafico freelance con sede a Osaka, in Giappone.

Akira Kusaka lavora solo con Photoshop dove crea tutte le sue opere d'arte.

Crea per pubblicità, copertine di libri, libri illustrati per bambini, web design ed altro ancora.

Shusaku Takaoka, 1977 | Pop Surrealist graphic designer

Japanese🎨 graphic designer Shusaku Takaoka reimagines pop culture and art in a funny and sometimes macabre way.

The artist is inspired by our modern society to juxtapose visuals who form a funny set and sometimes denouncing aspects of an ultra-consumer and over-connected world.

Using famous faces like Mona Lisa🎨, Van Gogh🎨, and Vermeer’s "Girl with a Pearl Earring"🎨, Takaoka merges them onto bodies sporting the latest fashions. The playful project gives a whole new meaning to these painted characters, who now look incredibly modern.

Kei Mieno, 1985

Kei Mieno 三重野慶 è un artista Giapponese🎨 nato a Hiroshima che dipinge professionalmente da oltre 10 anni.

Questo pittore è specializzato nell'iperrealismo e utilizza principalmente pittura ad olio per creare i suoi capolavori.

Kazuhiro Uno (Japanese, 1978)

Kazuhiro Uno / 卯野和宏 is a remarkable Japanese painter🎨 born in Ibaraki Prefecture.

In 2002 he graduated from the Department of Oil Painting at Musashino University of Art, in the class of Hiroshi Sakurai.

In 2004 he took a course in oil painting, also at Musashino University of Art, under the direction of Kuno Kazuhiro.

Kazuhiro Uno's work focuses on the female figure and still life.

He is currently a member of the Federation of Japanese Artists.

Izumi Kogahara (Japanese, 1979)

Izumi Kogahara is a Japanese painter🎨 and graphic designer, born in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture.

In the painting world, Izumi Kogahara is what one might call a natural-born master of color use.

Her unique use of warm, cool and neutral colors in all directions produces a singular brilliance and depth from each hue.

Kogahara is inspired by the energy of human beings that is generated not only by the instinct of life but also by the feeling generated by communicating with others.

Yoshio Markino | The colour of London

Makino Yoshio / 牧野 義雄, known as Yoshio Markino (1870-1956), was a Japanese Impressionist Watercolor painter and writer born in Koromo (Toyota City).

In 1893, he travelled to San Francisco where he trained at the Hopkins Art School, before arriving in London in 1897, instantly falling in love with the city.

He spent hours walking the streets, fascinated by the effect of mist and fog on the appearance of buildings, especially under gaslight.

Milt Kobayashi, 1950

Milt Kobayashi is a sophisticated painter who demonstrates a consummate mastery of design and unsentimental curiosity about people.

The fertile cross-currents of two great cultures have nurtured his art to a harmonious resolve of Western technique with Oriental color, pattern and spatial composition.

Yosuke Ueno / 上野陽介, 1977 | Pittore Pop-Surrealista

Yosuke Ueno è un artista autodidatta di fama internazionale.

La sua arte è un chiaro riflesso delle radici asiatiche dell'artista e dell'influenza della cultura pop contemporanea.

Le opere d'arte di Ueno sono ispirate alla religione giapponese dello Shinto che si basa sui particolari e sul godimento della natura.

Elementi fumettistici, giovani personaggi, improbabili piante, animali e creature antropomorfe popolano le sue surreali galassie dipinte su tela, e vivono felici in una dimensione psichedelica di superfici luccicanti.

Toshiyuki Enoki, 1961

Educated in several different genres of lacquer painting, traditional Japanese painting and western painting, Toshiyuki Enoki's works are an amalgamation of the new and aged, reality and myth.

This artist strives to antiquate his works, not only in his thematic tribute to well known traditional artists such as Maruyama Oukyou also in his artist process.

Using particularly worn brushes, Enoki cyclically paints, erases and transfers images for his works to create a unique atmospheric depiction of Nature.

As with all four pieces, the details brushstrokes and overall reflective surface is reminiscent of lacquer works which served as an inspiration for the artist.

His selected warm colour palette and scattered gold leaf across his canvas creates an overall magical and tranquil depiction in these four featured paintings.

Naoto Hattori, 1975 | Japan

Nato a Yokohama, Naoto Hattori ha studiato Graphic Design a Tokyo prima di trasferirsi a New York per studiare alla School of Visual Arts.

Esponente del surrealismo pop, ha ricevuto premi dalla Society of Illustrators, dal New York Director Club, Communication Arts e ha vinto numerosi concorsi d'arte ed è stato pubblicato in molte riviste d'arte.

Yoshiro Tachibana / 橘与四郎

Yoshiro Tachibana (1941-2016) is an Japanese painter born in Sanda (Kobe), based in Spain (La Coruna).

He is the son of the painter Nakaba Tachibana (1902-2000).

Yoshiro began to study art in Tokyo in 1962 and became inspired by the work of Klee.

In 1969 he traveled to Spain and Germany.

He lived in Hamburg and Kiel until 1973 and then Moved to Norway.

In 1975 he decided to settle in a small fishing village, Muxia (La Coruña) and began exhibiting his work in various cities in Galicia.

Il realismo fantastico di Maki Horanai

Maki Horanai è una pittrice che lavora sia su tela che su legno, oltre che su ceramica e tecniche miste (carboncino, pastelli e penna).

Maki Horanai è nata in Giappone ed attualmente vive nel sud-est del Queensland, in Australia.

È cresciuta in piccoli villaggi costieri nell'Hokkaido, nel nord del Giappone, dove spesso sedeva o giocava lungo la spiaggia.

Le prime influenze di Maki furono l'oceano, la riva, gli uccelli e le isole che vedeva sia nella realtà che nella sua immaginazione.

Tetsuya Ishida / 石田 徹也 (Japanese, 1973-2005)

Tetsuya Ishida was a Japanese painter, best known for his surreal portrayal of contemporary Japanese life. He died from a possible suicide in 2005 where he was struck by a train at a level crossing.

He was born in Yaizu, Shizuoka, as the youngest of four sons. His father was a member of parliament and his mother, a housewife.

He attended Yaizu Central High School until his graduation in 1992. Ishida stated in interviews that it was during this period that his parents, and his principal, applied pressure on him to thrive academically well enough to develop a teaching or chemist career.

This experience later appeared in some of his paintings that explore the society's expectations of youths. Ishida entered Musashino Art University where he majored in Visual Communication Design until his graduation in 1996.

Ishida's parents, unhappy about his career choice, refused to provide financial support during his university period, which Ishida recalled with amusement for his rare interviews.