Tomomitsu TADA

(Born in Hiroshima, 1979. Lives and works in Aomori, Japan)

What first strikes the eye about Tomomitsu Tada's work is his use of layering. Over-laying a variety of materials such as watercolor pencils, pastels, oils, and acrylic paints, each new layer expressing its own characteristics without ever negating the previous tiers of work below, while still continuing to maintain transparency throughout, such that we can recognize each individual drawing line and divergence of color in the whole. Particularly on a white chalk base, the transparency reveals the brightness and textures in the lower levels, transforming the presence of successive layered colors deeper, and more buoyant. The delicate lines in ballpoint pen, for example, capture the motifs, while the confident brushwork on the surface creates a space of extremely simple, occasionally dynamic counterpart.

Concrete motifs: fruits, animals, natural elements such as trees and mountains, everyday personal belongings, or words are drawn and placed boldly and symbolically, forcefully in the foreground, yet remaining a certain distance from realism. In the background, depicted with the same touch, are animistic scenes and fragments from everyday life in every netherworld of conceptual relations. The motifs are varied, complicating rather than clarifying. They catch our eyes, our emotions, and make us doubt that they are all part of the artists plan. Yet they remain part of an inherent logic.

He has exhibited frequently around Japan in solo and group exhibitions, as well as in Norway, Germany, the UK, Spain, Austria, and South Korea, and he won the Jury Prize in the New Art Competition 2007, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan.