Yuta Okuda
After studying fashion design in Japan and the UK, Yuta Okuda worked as a designer for a fashion brand before transitioning to a career as an artist in 2016. He has actively participated in solo and group exhibitions in Japan, steadily building his career through creation and presentation.
Initially, his work consisted of intricate drawings composed solely of calculated lines. In recent years, however, he has focused on works featuring flowers that emphasize "chance" and randomness. While the flowers, rendered in vibrant colors, convey a strong sense of pop art, each petal is intricately detailed with fine line work.
Okuda himself says it doesn’t have to look like a flower, and indeed, his works are not depictions of flowers in a strictly representational sense. Instead, they are deeply tied to his childhood memories, reflecting a process where the artist seeks to "salvage" or "rescue" his own sense of self.
Inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, I realized that the things I took for granted in daily life were, in fact, extraordinary moments. This realization led me to express gratitude for those everyday blessings through my artwork under the theme ‘with gratitude’. I create flowers as a way to convey this sense of appreciation to the viewer.
My technique involves transforming "chance" into "inevitability" by outlining accidental elements, such as blended paint, with an ultra-fine pen. Over the past few years, my artistic style has shifted from intricate drawings composed solely of calculated lines to works centered on the theme of "chance". I extract outlines from the random textures and unevenness created by ink bleeding or the blending of acrylic paints to depict motifs such as flowers.
Yuta Okuda reinterprets the concept of "kata" (form) that underpins Japanese art and culture from a contemporary perspective, transforming it into his works. Japanese culture, as seen in martial arts, tea ceremony, garden art, and bonsai, embodies a beauty born from self-discipline and order. At the same time, cultural traits such as "mitate" (poetic juxtaposition) and "nazo-rae" (symbolic analogy), deeply rooted in Japan's cultural soil, have flourished over the centuries.
Okuda views the world with a broad perspective and paints with a core belief in maintaining composure as a Japanese person, even in the face of absurdities, and upholding the beauty of humanity. His art reflects the importance of not losing one's grace and dignity as a human being.
2010: Graduated with an M.A. in Fashion Design from ISTITUTO MARANGONI, London, U.K.
<Exhibition History>
2022.03.21 – 05.15: Held a solo exhibition at Gallery Sakurabayashi, located at Hitachi-no-Kuni Izumo Taisha Shrine in Ibaraki
2022.03.10 – 03.13: Participated in Art Fair Tokyo through Mizuma Art Gallery
2022.03.04 – 03.27: Held a solo exhibition at A/D Gallery in Roppongi
2022.02.11 – 02.13: Participated in ART NAGOYA 2022 through Tomohiko Yoshino Gallery
2022.01.19 – 01.23: Participated in the LA Art Show through Mizuma Art Gallery
2022.01.14 – 02.20: Held a solo exhibition at Mizuma Gallery in Singapore
2021.11.07 – 12.31: Participated in a group exhibition at HWA’S Gallery in Shanghai
2021.10.06 – 11.07: Held a solo exhibition at Mizuma & Kips in New York