Biography

TETSUO SUZUKA

La Bayadèr

was born in Kyoto in 1973. He is currently based in Tokyo. Learning to draw from an early age, his drawings won a number of contests, receiving the Kyoto Governor Award and the Kyoto Newspaper Award back to back.

After moving to Tokyo, he was selected by the onedotzero festival supported by the Arts Council of England and was featured in Stash.

His works have been introduced in over 17 countries including the U.S. After a videographer career spanning borders, he made the shift to contemporary art. Observing this period of analog-to-digital transition, he developed the “DATA PAINTING” method for interrogating the value of data through painting. Taking data as a material of our times, he pursued the subject from a metaphysical point of view and through themes such as resolution, virtual spaces, history and Buddhist art

The use of the latest visual technology in the production process, which includes development of a custom computer program, and cutting edge approaches to expression on a canvas resulted in paintings of previously invisible data.

From domestic exhibitions at the MOA Museum of Art, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Kyoto Museum of Crafts and Design, to a group exhibition at Arte Carrillo Gil Museum in Mexico, his works have also been featured in Barcelona Film Festival and Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto.He has held solo exhibitions in Tokyo at the London Gallery Shirokane, BTF Gallery and Rikka Gallery.

On the 400-year anniversary of the Rimpa school, which tends to get reintroduced into the Japanese art world on a 100-year cycle, MOA Museum of Art and Nezu Museum collaborated on a special exhibition which featured national treasures such as “Red and White Plum Blossoms” and “Irises” folding screens alongside works spanning period from Edo to early modern, modern and contemporary. In an exhibit that featured such luminaries as Ogata Kōrin, Hishida Shunsō, Kanzan Shimomura, Matazō Kayama, Takashi Murakami , Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Reiji Hiramatsu, Suzuka was introduced as an artist at the cutting edge of contemporary work that deals with data.

The “Through the Screen” method of using monitor screen as a canvas introduced earlier is a method of expression that focuses on the CRT color. Using this new way of expressing data, a single scene plucked from a virtual space on a screen combines a kind of solid tranquility with a spectral otherworldliness all at the same time. From a technical point of view, the original program used in “Through the Screen” allows for a new level of purity in expression and is a technology with a patent application pending.

With the expanded range of painting expression in “DATA PAINTING” and a videographer’s approach to understanding the core essence of Japanese fine art all combined into one in the “Through the Screen” aesthetic, Suzuka is breaking new ground as an artist.

Awards

  • Japan Minister of Education, Sports, Science and Technology Award
  • Fukuoka Prefecture Governor Award
  • Asian Digital Art Award
  • AOF Film Festival – The Best Title Sequence Award
  • AOF Film Festival – The Best Graphics AwardMOA Museum of Art – Nezu Museum
  • “Special Exhibition Commemorating the 300th Anniversary of Ogata Kōrin’s Death” – exhibition
  • 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa – exhibition
  • Fukuoka Asian Art Museum – exhibition
  • London Gallery Shirokane – solo exhibition 2017
  • London Gallery Shirokane – solo exhibition 2014
  • Arte Carrillo Gil Museum (Mexico) – exhibition
  • The Brussels Animation Festival Anima
  • Festival Nemo at Paris Film Festival
  • Barcelona Film Festival (Spain)
  • Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto
  • “Top 10 Japanese finest videographer” as part of the U.K.’s onedotzero worldwide program