After Hours: Nobuaki Takekawa

Ota Fine Arts is pleased to announce Nobuaki Takekawa's solo exhibition after two and a half years.

Nobuaki Takekawa has been viewing social and political problems by plunging into the vortex of them and he has embodied these themes in his works. This sort of themes generally appears to be difficult to deal with. However, he chooses familiar motifs with his style of a full humor and creates works which anyone can enjoy and understand, regardless of their forms. In recent years, he has actively participated in the activities concerning the radical issues of "nuclear power plants" or "hate speech" by working beyond the art field. In this exhibition, he introduces new paintings based on these themes of various problems: the contemporary distortions which result from being neglected in exchange for economic growth.

The title of this exhibition, "After Hours", indicates the time after the night of club parties when people spend to tone down while indulging in an aftertaste of madness. Being aware of people who are in various "AFTERS" - such as people who get away from the fantasy which lingers after the end of economic growth or people who participate in protest demonstrations on the street after their daily work - Takekawa positions this exhibition as a place for "After Hours" of our contemporary society where part of intelligence has been nearly overheated. Takekawa aims to provide the place of "AFTERS" to calm down and consider the roots of the various problems against which people raise their voice with intelligence and anger.

Takekawa choses "painting" - the orthodox technique of art - to express the theme for this exhibition. For the theme considered through individual problems such as "hate speech" and the theme he received while thinking of Asia or dealing with the even bigger theme such as "Economic History", painting functions as the groundwork which enables Takekawa equally to take up these various themes that are related to each other but different in scale. Furthermore, for the first time, he utilizes acrylic paint which is used for street expression or placards of protest demonstrations, to represent the current problems with quick response.

With even keener critical eyes and high awareness of the issues, Takekawa pursues his art expression with more sincerity and thus this exhibition may be a significant turning point for his career.

Nobuaki Takekawa was born in Tokyo, Japan 1977 and completed BA in Fine Arts at the Tokyo University of the Arts in 2002. At the same year, he presented the first solo exhibition in Ota Fine Arts. In recent years, he participated in various domestic and foreign exhibitions: "Real Japanesque: The Unique World of Japanese Contemporary" (2012, The National Museum of Art, Osaka), "12th Biennale de Lyon" (2013, Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, Lyon), etc.
He is also going to participate in "Messages - Takahashi Collection" at Towada Art Center, Aomori starting from 19th September, 2015.