ARTIST

Raou Tanaka

Raou Tanaka / born 1985, Hokkaido

STATEMENT

"For me a good painting is one that stirs the viewer's imagination." Using marbling — dropping colour onto water to make a pattern — I create a pattern on the surface that is highly a matter of chance and exists nowhere else, then add motifs drawn with a high level of descriptive skill. The result is an animal painting full of a live feeling, in which chance and realism are fused. I paint animals as my motif because I find their purity of living and the vitality of their movement compelling. The thick armour I had put on to fit into society seemed unnecessary for a painter, and to take it off I first needed pure life as my subject. I also paint so that the breath and the after-movement of a creature can be felt in the empty space — where the animal's gaze is directed, where no particular motif is painted. I would be glad if the viewer, seeing a brave animal in the painting, projected themselves onto it, or held it against their own situation and felt their heart lift.

PROFILE

Raou Tanaka 1985 Born in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Graduated from Hokkaido College of Art and Design 2006 Began working in Tokyo as a caricature artist 2014 Won the ISCA convention, the caricature world championship (Nevada, USA), becoming world champion 2016 Turned to animal painting; opened a studio in Machida 2019 Appointed an Adobe Japan Prerelease Advisor. Spoke at Adobe MAX in Los Angeles, the world's largest creators' festival, in "Adobe Fresco Dojo: Japanese Blackbelt Illustrators Draw Live" — the only session by a Japanese artist that year. Led workshops twice at Today at Apple, Apple Marunouchi 2023 Moved the studio to Akasaka

INTERVIEW / PV

WORKS

56 works

EXHIBITIONS