artist statement
I paint light and water, plants, and imaginary sights.
When I look intently at my canvas, I imagine in my mind’s eye silent sceneries, which have been preserved since humans were born.
I have been conscious of continuing deeper into the space to express the air’s presence around lights, water, and plants.
For my creation, I always think of leaving something I made by accident, such as free lines and surfaces using
brushes and pencils, uneven colors and brushstrokes, and dropped paints.
Consequently, I feel the room for imaginations and infinite possibilities in unexpected and unmathematical colors
and shapes made by hand.
I also use airbrushes, screen printings, and mediums to make different forms of details to express my imaginations effectively.
I recently got my interest in photographs reacted by light (cyanotype print) and started painting on photo-prints to compensating for my painting when I can’t paint enough.
Since I was a student, I have been trying to reproduce the reflection on the surface of glasses in my paintings.
As time goes by, my thought of transparent objects has gradually changed and spread to water, lights, and air. Essentially, all of them are and extremely beautiful and indispensable for our lives.
This is why such objects move me; as I get older, I have more important things to protect, and I became more thoughtful to live.
Nowadays, our environment on the earth is polluted, and nature has rapidly destroyed.
I am afraid of invisible radiation, chemicals, and climate changes. My heart ached with the fact that various things
in my childhood memories have disappeared fast.
On the other hand, people can't make our living without energy and daily consumption.
In my mind, I have a feeling of anxiety and concern to the contradiction between our destruction and wasteful spendings; therefore, I am attracted much stronger to clear lights, water, and air, which are essential to protect our life.
My fundamental endless search for my creation is to observe invisible objects about to destroy, pursue missing little beautiful things, and visualize them as paintings.
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Makiko Okitsu
Born in Osaka
1982 Graduation from Advance Course Art Department, Kyoto University of Education
solo exhibition
2021 Ⅾohjidai Gallery, Kyoto,Japan
2017 Kuzuha Art Gallery, Osaka, Japan
2016 GALLERY SPACE PRISM, Aichi, Japan
2015 Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum, Aichi, Japan
2010 Gallery Kei, Mie, Japan
2007 Mie Gallery, Mie, Japan
2006 GALLERY TSUBAKI, Tokyo, Japan
2003 Trix Museum, Mie, Japan
group exhibition
2000 - 2012 Art Forum Mie
1981 - 2003 Shinseisaku Awarded Artists Selection Exhibition
award
2017 Selected at Art Olympia
2015 Grand Prize, The 8th Kiyosu City Haruhi Painting Triennale
2012 Honorable Mention, The 7th Kiyosu City Haruhi Painting Triennale
2011 Honorable Mention, Kitano-Daichi Biennale
1989 Honorable Mention, The 39th Ueno Royal Museum Grand Prize Exhibition
1998 First Prize, Morikazu Kumagai First Prize
collection
The Ueno Royal Museum
Morikazu Kumagai Museum of Art
Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum