Bio
I was born and raised in Kanagawa, Japan.
After I graduated in 1984 from Sophia Junior College where I majored in English, I transferred to Trinity College in Washington, D.C. and majored in American Studies. I earned a B.A. degree in 1986 and returned to Japan to work in business. While I was working in Tokyo, I started to take art lessons and found so much joy and freedom in creating another dimension of the world on canvas. Then, I decided to go back to school to study painting seriously. This is because soon after I started to paint, I found that there would be a limitation on my creativity if I kept painting just by trusting my sensibilities. I thought that without any background in academic studies, painting frantically would not take me beyond the stage of pleasing myself.
Participating in the Educational Exchange Program administered by Exchange:Japan, I entered the University of Alabama in 1994, where I majored in painting while working as a Japanese instructor. These two-year contractual years made it possible for me to be convinced of my passion for art.
In 1996, I entered the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn NY, graduate program majoring in painting, and earned my Master’s degree in 1999. Since then, I have been devoted to developing and building up a body of oil paintings. Early in the year of 2009, I found it fascinating to create digital drawings using Adobe Photoshop. Digital works can be easily manipulated and presented in a different medium, and I am expecting to show them in various ways. Now I live and work in Japan. The following is a list of my exhibition records, and the awards and honors I have received.
Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions:
2018 Gallery New Shinkuro, Odawara, Kanagawa, Japan – “Redefining”
2011 Con Edison Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2004 Plum Blossoms Gallery, NYC – “Double Surface”
2003 Domo Gallery, Summit, NJ – “Absolute”
2003 Meru Art Gallery, Brooklyn, NY – “Redimensioned”
2002 Anotheroom, NYC
Group Exhibitions:
2018 Gallery New Shinkuro, Odawara, Kanagawa, Japan – “2018 Summer Collections”
2014 Pratt Institute Library, Center for Career & Professional Development, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY – “Decording Digital”
2011 Online Gallery, Harmony for Peace Foundation, Southeastern, PA – “International Pease Art Competition”
2011 Asian Arts Gallery, Towson University, Towson, MD – “Meditation in Contemporary Landscape”
2011 Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY – “Behind the Rain”
2010 Stamford Art Association, Stamford, CT – “30th Annual Faber Birren National Color Award Show”
2010 LBIF Gallery, The Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences (LBIF), NJ – “2010 National Juried Competition:
Digital Works”
2009 MFA Circle Gallery, Maryland Federation of Art, Annapolis, MD – “Small Wonders”
2008 Alpan Gallery, Huntington, NY – “Alpan International 2008”
2008 Thomas Masters Gallery, Chicago, IL – “thomas masters gallery 15 years”
2007 Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Woodstock, NY – “Woodstock Biennial 2007”
2007 Stamford Art Association, Stamford, CT – “27th Annual Faber Birren National Color Award Show”
2007 Art Addiction Medial Museum, London, UK – “Medial 2 Art Biennial”
2006 Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ – “2006 Blank canvas Benefit: For Art’s Sake”
2006 Stamford Art Association, Stamford, CT – “26th Annual Faber Birren National Color Award Show”
2004 Mills Pond House Gallery, Smithtown Township Arts Council, St. James, NY – “29th Annual Juried Arts Exhibition”
2002 Amerasia Bank Exhibition Gallery, Flushing, NY – “Oriental Philosophy from the Ink”
2002 Galesburg Civic Art Center, Galesburg, IL – “National GALEX 36 Exhibition”
2001 Artsforum Gallery, NYC – ”Narrative Sense”
2001 Stamford Art Association, Stamford, CT – “21st Annual Faber Birren National Color Award Show”
2001 The Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts, New Castle, PA – “20th Annual Hoyt National Art Exhibition”
2001 Studio 4 West Gallery, Piermont, NY – “4th International Juried Exhibition”
2001 University Place Gallery, The Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA – “ National Prize Show”
2001 Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY – “Breaking the Rules, Art 2001, Tri-State Juried Exhibition”
2001 Dumbo Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY – “Random Access Memory”
1999 GAle GAtes et al., Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY – “Slide Show”
1994 Asahi Seimei Gallery, Tokyo, Japan – “3rd National Juried Exhibition”
Sponsor: Sankei Newspaper
Awards & Honors:
2015 Certificate of Excellence, 13th Online Contest, Artavita.com, CA
2012 Honorable Mention, 4th Art Contest, Artavita.com, CA
2009 Runner-up for JCAL Poetry Contest, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, NY
2008 Fellow in Painting, New York Foundation for the Arts, NYC
2007 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, NY
2007 Award of Excellence, Manhattan Arts International, NY
2007 Honorable Award, Art Addiction Medial Museum, London, UK
2006 Jones Award, Stamford Art Association, CT
2004 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, NY
2001 Honorable Mention, Studio 4 West Gallery, NY
Artworks Registries:
Artists Space, NYC
Urban Arts Institute, MA
NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC
The Drawing Center, NYC
Asian American Arts Centre, NYC