Kawaii...but painterly

Takuya Yoshida (b.1986, Tokyo) lived in Saitama Prefecture until the age of 17.  At that time, Yoshida was a tanned boy who spent time outside playing in the small woods and ditches at the corner of the densely populated residential area, searching for crawfish, tadpoles, and frogs and walking his dog. As a boy, he learned alpine skiing and swimming and gradually began participating in national competitions. Yoshida was never happier than when spending the weekend away from the city, skiing in the snow-covered mountains and enjoying nature. By his teen years, however, as he traveled back and forth between the city and countryside, he began to question whether people and nature coexisted well in Japanese cities. He also developed a rebellious attitude toward the education system, where students study to gain acceptance to a good university. At the age of 17, he decided to go to the United States to study skiing and enrolled at Carrabassett Valley Academy in Maine. Moving to the United States alone and experiencing barriers of language, race, and physique in sports, it is easy to become discouraged. Amidst the majestic nature of Maine, he began to grapple with troubling questions that had no answer: who am I? Where do I belong? It was then that he began to develop a fresh interest in American music and art. He began to see the strong potential of painting as a medium for expressing and conveying his feelings and thoughts and began experimenting with pencil drawings and other media. After graduating high school, he took a break from skiing and discovered oil painting at Plymouth State University. Encountering the unique colors, smells, and techniques of oil paint, Yoshida was convinced that this was the medium he had been searching for. He studied oil painting at university and then deepened his studies at the graduate level at the New York Studio School. There, he received technical instruction in how to paint in a “painterly” manner and learned how to see the real world as it is and express it in paint. After graduating from New York Studio School in 2013, he was awarded the Hohenberg Travel Prize and traveled to Italy for three months. There, he was captivated by art of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, especially the paintings of Giotto, Duccio, and Sassetta. He was impressed by the way the figures in the paintings were as large as the buildings, and the way they were rendered in a simplified manner. It seemed to Yoshida that these painters felt free to depict a world different from the real world. Another reason Yoshida was strongly attracted to the paintings of the early Renaissance was their use of gold leaf and other features they shared in common with the work of Japanese painters such as Tawaraya Sōtatsu and Ogata Kōrin. Soon after, Yoshida’s US visa expired, and he reluctantly returned to Japan in 2014. For the following two years, he worked in a small studio in Tokyo. However, in search of a more spacious studio, he moved north to Hokkaido, re-establishing himself in the same kind of majestic nature where he was first inspired to paint after pondering “who am I and where do I belong?” Three years later, a colorful, paradise-like artistic vision teeming with people and animals began to emerge in his plein air works created face-to-face with nature. At that time, he began exhibiting his work in and outside of Hokkaido. His solo exhibition at the Toyako Museum of Art, titled Ikimotachi-ga Yadoru Hanpu (“Canvas that Harbors Life”), broke the museum’s record for the highest number of visitors to a solo exhibition and prompted a visit and critique from contemporary artist Yoshitomo Nara. He also gained attention for a mural more than 20 meters long adorning the Super Kumagai Supermarket, completed as part of the “Roots & Arts Shiraoi” project. In 2022, he returned to the United States for a stint as a guest lecturer and artist in residence at the Phillips Exeter Academy. Now based in Hokkaido, he continues to be active both in Japan and abroad.