- Thustt 01／2024
Natsuki Takayama
高山夏希
- ART FAIR - MEET YOUR ARTISTS
Natsuki Takayama was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture and grew up in Tokyo. She studied fine arts at Tokyo Zokei University, majoring in painting. She mainly creates two-dimensional works (paintings), attempting to reconsider the relationship between humans and matter as if feeling the texture of particles, and expresses a view of nature in which people, animals, objects, and the environment are one. She has also produced and exhibited works in a variety of media, including installations, ceramics, and sculptures.
The development of information technology has strengthened the ties between symbolized things, but on the other hand, perhaps our sensitivity to things that are less symbolized has weakened. I feel that this has led to a dimming of our sense of reality towards the things that surround us. In an attempt to recover the relationship between humans and various objects that has been lost in this era, I would like to present a worldview that differs from the modern one in which living things, including humans, are one with nature. I believe that by reaffirming that we ourselves live as part of an intertwined world, we can reconsider the lives of modern humans.
He treats acrylic paint as a material state like flowing particles, layers it, and carves it with a carving knife or cutter blade, using flat surfaces as his main medium, creating works using techniques that can be described as tactile or sculptural. Takayama's colors are different from the visual blending techniques of impressionist color theory, or the colors based on the three primary colors of light seen in modern video equipment. They are closer to colors and textures that arise naturally through natural phenomena. For example, there are complex and subtle colors that build up on rock surfaces over a long period of time, and tactile colors that appear due to the shadows created by fine material undulations. I call these "skin-textured colours," and I aim to create them rather than treat them as natural phenomena. I attempt to make colors that work for all living things, including humans, and continue to deepen my work into a new color theory.
Major exhibitions he has participated in include "Emotional Eyes" (Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art, 2023), "Boso Satoyama Art Festival Ichihara Art x Mix 2020 + "Conjunction - From Noun to Conjunction"" (Shiratori Nursery School/Chiba, 2021), and "VOCA Exhibition 2020: Ambitions of Contemporary Art - New Artists of the Plane" (The Ueno Royal Museum, 2020).
Profile image: Photographed by Minamoto Tadayuki
Takayama Natsuki_CV(JP)
Natsuki Takayama_CV(EN)
The development of information technology has strengthened the ties between symbolized things, but on the other hand, perhaps our sensitivity to things that are less symbolized has weakened. I feel that this has led to a dimming of our sense of reality towards the things that surround us. In an attempt to recover the relationship between humans and various objects that has been lost in this era, I would like to present a worldview that differs from the modern one in which living things, including humans, are one with nature. I believe that by reaffirming that we ourselves live as part of an intertwined world, we can reconsider the lives of modern humans.
He treats acrylic paint as a material state like flowing particles, layers it, and carves it with a carving knife or cutter blade, using flat surfaces as his main medium, creating works using techniques that can be described as tactile or sculptural. Takayama's colors are different from the visual blending techniques of impressionist color theory, or the colors based on the three primary colors of light seen in modern video equipment. They are closer to colors and textures that arise naturally through natural phenomena. For example, there are complex and subtle colors that build up on rock surfaces over a long period of time, and tactile colors that appear due to the shadows created by fine material undulations. I call these "skin-textured colours," and I aim to create them rather than treat them as natural phenomena. I attempt to make colors that work for all living things, including humans, and continue to deepen my work into a new color theory.
Major exhibitions he has participated in include "Emotional Eyes" (Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art, 2023), "Boso Satoyama Art Festival Ichihara Art x Mix 2020 + "Conjunction - From Noun to Conjunction"" (Shiratori Nursery School/Chiba, 2021), and "VOCA Exhibition 2020: Ambitions of Contemporary Art - New Artists of the Plane" (The Ueno Royal Museum, 2020).
Profile image: Photographed by Minamoto Tadayuki
Takayama Natsuki_CV(JP)
Natsuki Takayama_CV(EN)
