INSTINC presents Beautiful Singapore by a Japanese born, Canada-based artists Daisuke Takeya. With new bodies of paintings created during his a month and half residency in Singapore at INSTINC’s AIR programme, Takeya depicted various views of Singapore from distance known as Kara series. His recent series of paintings entitled Kara (“Kara”, the Chinese ideogram for “sky”, also meaning “emptiness”), ongoing since 2002 has been described as a “hybrid of abstraction and representation in contemporary landscape painting”. Seen from a distance, urban and natural landscapes lose their characteristics in these paintings, emphasizing the emptiness of sky, and accentuating its beauty. Bird’s-eye vistas echo his vision, as well as perspectives developed through, and influenced by, his experiences living in various international locations. The empty sky extends endlessly around the globe and absorbs the universe, yet seems intangible. These landscapes implies selflessness, and expresses fundamental questions about the existence of human beings.
About the artist:
Born and raised in Japan, Daisuke Takeya obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Graduate School of Figurative Art at the New York Academy of Art and received Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual arts in the States. Currently based in Toronto, Canada, Daisuke has had numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally. Venues have fincluded the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Fukushima Contemporary Art Biannual 2012, the Japan Foundation, Toronto, the Embassy of Japan in Canada, Nuit Blanche (Toronto), Seoul auction, Pouch Cove Foundation, SVA Gallery, Wagner College Gallery, Mori Art Museum Roppongi Hills Club, Kyoto Art Center, Sezon Art Program / Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Tate Tokyo Reisency, and the Prince Takamado Gallery at the Embassy of Canada in Japan. Daisuke has co-directed and performed at Ashita: Artists for Japan, a Tsunami Relief Fundraiser in March, 2011, which featured the visual music, dance performance, and literary art communities of Toronto. Daisuke is also a past programming director and board member of Gendai Gallery, and is currently an artist and afmbassador of ARTBOUND, co-director of DAICHI Projects, and the curator of Field Trip Project.
Image: © Daisuke Takeya, INSTINC
