Tetsu IMAMURA

KENJI TAKI GALLERY

Set against original narratives where the boundaries of reality and fiction blur, his installations are complex amalgamations of oil and beeswax paintings, drawings, sculptures, and text.

Characterized by a worldview that assimilates mythology, literature, and everyday phenomena, his work profoundly evokes the imagination of the viewer.

The First Word, 2008

Biography

1961 Born in Boston, raised in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan

1986 Completed the Master’s Program in Oil Painting, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Aichi University of the Arts

Currently lives and works in Aichi and Mie Prefectures.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

1984 Gallery Hakuzen, Nagoya
1985 Sanwa Gallery, Tokyo
1988 “Two World” Love Collection Gallery, Nagoya
2000 Gallery OH, Ichinomiya
- “Creeping in a Tunnel” Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Mie
2001 “Dalish Hotel” Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2002 “Final Dream” Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
- “Floating” MORI YU GALLERY, Kyoto
- Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2003 Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
- “DIARY” MORI YU GALLERY, Kyoto
2004 “Lost Things and What Was Born from Them” Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2006 Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2007 “Ant Nest” Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2008 Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2009 Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2010 “Not Here” MORI YU GALLERY, Kyoto
2012 “Bizarre Paradise” Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2015 “Passenger Boat without Marebito” Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2017 “Countless Boxes of the Same Size Contained in a Box of the Same Size” Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2022 “Bird Person, Monkey Person, Incarnation Person” Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2024 “Space Bag” Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2025 Kenji Taki Gallery, Roppongi

Selected Group Exhibitions

1986 “One Hundred, Head, Beast” The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga Gallery, Otsu, Shiga
1987 “One Hundred, Head, Beast” Love Collection Gallery, Nagoya
1988 “One Hundred, Head, Beast” The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga Gallery, Otsu, Shiga
- “Yes Art” Gallery Haku, Osaka
1992 “Allegory V” Nagoya Citizens’ Gallery, Nagoya
1994 “Existing Painting” Nagoya Citizens’ Gallery, Nagoya
1997 “The Whereabouts of the Gaze – The Position of Contemporary Art 1997” Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya
1999 “given” Nagoya Port Garden Pier Warehouse No. 20, Nagoya
- “Perspectives of Contemporary Japanese Painting” Tokyo Station Gallery, Tokyo
2000 “twelve lodgers” Nagoya Port Garden Pier Warehouse No. 20, Nagoya
2002 “Mediators” Nagoya Citizens’ Gallery Yada, Nagoya
- MOT Annual 2002 “Fiction? – The World Opened by Painting” Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo
2006 “Magical Art Life: The World of a Collector” Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya, Tokyo
2007 “All About Laughter: Humor in Contemporary Art” Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
2008 “Hyakka Kyoran” MORI YU GALLERY, Kyoto
2009 “NINE” Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2010 “Aichi Art no Mori” Various locations in Nagoya city, Nagoya
- “More Movement: The Artist as Choreographer” Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima
- “Dislocation” island, Kashiwa, Chiba
2011 “Togen Banzai! Genealogy of East Asian Utopias” Okazaki City Museum, Okazaki, Aichi
- “Those Who Walk Out in Duplicate” (Tetsu Imamura, Arika Someya, Yuriko Yamamoto + D.D.) Aichi University of the Arts Satellite Gallery, Nagoya
2017 “Seeds of Memory: Japanese Artists in Yogyakarta” (Curated by: Kentaro Yokouchi, Leonhard Bartolomeus) Langgeng Art Foundation, etc., Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2021 “2021” Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya

■ D.D. (Tetsu Imamura, Arika Someya – Artist Unit) Exhibitions

2011 “Those Who Walk Out in Duplicate” (Tetsu Imamura, Arika Someya, Yuriko Yamamoto + D.D.) Aichi University of the Arts Satellite Gallery (Nagoya)
2012 Aichi Triennale Regional Expansion Project Aichi Art Program “Okazaki Art & Jazz 2012” Okazaki CIBICO 6th Floor (Okazaki, Aichi)
- Exhibited as D.D. (Tetsu Imamura + Arika Someya + Video: Jiro Idehara) “The Structure of a Soft-Boiled Egg”
2013 “Humor and Leap” Okazaki City Museum (Okazaki, Aichi)
2014 “A Roundabout Journey” Nagoya City Art Museum
2014 D.D. Solo Exhibition “A ‘Surprise Attack’ for the Audience, a ‘Fruit’ for the Walker” Aichi Arts Center 2nd Basement Floor Forum
2015 “A ‘Surprise Attack’ for the Audience, a ‘Fruit’ for the Walker” (Walking Theater) Aichi Arts Center (Re-exhibition)
2016 “Melting Boundaries – Resonating works -” Nagoya Citizens’ Gallery Yada, Nagoya (Aichi University of the Arts 50th Anniversary Oil Painting Dept. Exhibition)
2020 “Tilted Heads | P(art)Y LAB x D.D.” N-mark (Nagoya)
2021 MAT Exhibition vol.09 Online Collaborative Production “Nagoya x Penang Simultaneous Exhibition: Nagoya Culture Dispatch Bureau” MAT Nagoya Minatomachi POTLUCK BUILDING 3F, Nagoya
2021 Arika Someya Works “The Third Turn” + D.D. “Only the King Wears Pants” Aichi University of the Arts Satellite Gallery SA・KURA (Nagoya)
2025 “Intersecting Drops” Coelacanth Takeshiro Mohri Memorial Museum (Kurobe, Toyama)