Thursday, July 4, 2024

Fumiya Watanabe

Fumiya Watanabe (born 1985) was raised in a modern district of Tokyo but then decided to throw himself into Japanese tradition. He attended Kyoto Traditional Crafts College, then apprenticed under a master carver in Inami, Japan's "City of Wood." 

Now he lives and works in Gifu Prefecture, a largely rural area north of Tokyo.

But I don't see much of Japanese tradition in his work, which seems to draw on Surrealism and other 20th-century European forms, or in the way he talks about it:

My work is like a diary, like a poem. My feelings appear in various forms. Events in my daily life, things from the past, people around me, and the dogs and cats I live with also come to me…. I am not trying to convey some big message in my works. I just give form to what I feel. I want the viewer to freely interpret and enjoy them.
I find them delightful. More at his web site.



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