Takeshi Motomiya


Takeshi Motomiya is a multidisciplinary Japanese artist living in Barcelona since 1986. Throughout his career, he has worked within various visual arts disciplines that include painting, engraving, and sculpture. Characterized by his work of textures and natural pigment colors, his work is mainly based on abstract art and shows some attributes of figurativism and abstract expressionism, infused with ancient Japanese gods, biblical content, and Greek and Egyptian mythology.
Raised and trained in Japan, and having lived in Paris before settling in Barcelona, Motomiya's work has been exhibited in several European cities such as Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam and Mahón. However the vast majority of his works are exhibited in his native country, Japan.
Through his specialization in engraving and the subsequent creation of the Taller Nou studio, he has worked with national and international artists, such as Antoni Tàpies, Barry Flanagan, Balthus, Miquel Barceló and Perejaume. The studio has been acknowledged as one of the best printmaking studios in Spain.

Early life and education

Takeshi Motomiya was born on 5 December 1959 in Shibuya, Tokyo. He was born into a highborn family of painters, and grew up surrounded by an artistic environment, between galleries and exhibitions. His grandmother, Migishi Setsuko, known as one of the pioneering Japanese women in oil painting, and his grandfather, , known as one of the first painters who began paintings by surrealism in Japan, were the main influential characters in Motomiya's interest towards the art world.
He graduated in Fine Arts in 1982, with a master's degree specializing in engraving techniques in 1984 by the Tama Art University of Tokyo. Despite the fact that his academic background was focused on engraving, his personal development as an artist has matured above all in the area of painting.
In 1984, with an invitation from his grandmother who at the time was living in France, Motomiya undertook his first trip to Europe with the intention of getting to know the art of European museums. While residing in France, Motomiya travelled around Europe were he had the opportunity to exhibit alongside his grandparents, and his uncle in a joint exhibition at the Galerie d’Eendt in Amsterdam in 1986.
It was that same year, in one of his European trips where Motomiya, at the age of 27, fell in love with the city of Barcelona, where he has been established since 1986. It was upon his settlement in Barcelona that Motomiya began to focus entirely on his painting.

Career

Motomiya's work has been exhibited mainly in art galleries in Tokyo such as the Ueda Gallery, the Galerie 421, the 21+yo, the Okumura Gallery or the Libre Gallery. He has shown his work in art galleries across Japan as well; at the Yamaguchi Gallery in Chiba, and the Ecru-no-mori Gallery in Mishima. He has participated in several editions of the Nippon International Contemporary Art Fair, currently known as Art Fair Tokyo, and has exhibited at various editions of the Japan Art Dealers Association in Tokyo.
Outside Japan, Motomiya's work has been mostly exhibited in Europe, in cities such as Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam and Mahón where he has been regularly exhibiting since 2012.During his first exhibition at the 5th NiCAF in 1997, Motomiya was introduced to the Japanese poet and literary critic, Makoto Ōoka. After seeing Motomiya's work, Ōoka described him as the artist painted by pictures, which he later used as the title for the article in which he wrote about Motomiya's work. Ōoka who came to admire the artist's work, became a regular buyer of Motomiya's work. Today, some of those paintings are part of the private collection exhibited at the :ja:大岡信ことば館|Ōoka Makoto Kotoba Museum, in Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture.
In 2009, Motomiya began teaching printmaking techniques at the Escola Massana of Barcelona within the Experimental Edition Course of the Massana Permanent program. The course was taught until 2012.

Taller Nou studio

After settling in Barcelona, in 1989, while continuing his work in painting, he and an associate founded the Taller Nou studio, which became a printmaking studio specialized in engraving and etching techniques for professional artists.
Since the beginning of their work as printmakers, and for more than twenty years, they were the only printmaking studio of Antoni Tàpies' work. In fact, they kept working with him until the artist's passing in 2012. Apart from Tàpies, they have worked with many other national and international artists, among which are Barry Flanagan, Balthus, Miquel Barceló and Perejaume.
Originally located in the Gracia district of Barcelona, the studio has been referred to as one of the best printmaking studios in Spain. Their work has been exhibited in museums around the world such as the Museum of Modern Art of New York, during the Antoni Tàpies in Print exhibition, or at the Musée Picasso Paris, during Miquel Barceló, Sol y Sombra exhibit in 2016.

Exhibitions

Selected solo and group exhibitions;