Interview with Noteworthy Painter Keita Morimoto: Seeking 'Heterotopia' Illuminated by Artificial Light
Noteworthy painter Keita Morimoto discusses his solo exhibition, where he depicts urban landscapes under artificial light to express solitude within a crowd.Summary
This is an interview with Keita Morimoto, a painter gaining significant attention both in Japan and internationally through successive solo exhibitions. The interview coincides with his current solo show, "what we told ourselves," held at KOTARO NUKAGA in Tokyo. Morimoto, born in Osaka in 1990, studied in Canada before returning to Japan in 2021. His work is characterized by depicting contemporary urban scenes—where light and shadow intersect in twilight cityscapes—using classical techniques, elevating them to a special status. The current exhibition features about 20 paintings, including large-scale new works, alongside an immersive installation, marking a new challenge for him. Morimoto maintains a studio free of natural light, relying solely on uniform artificial illumination to keep his production conditions constant. Reflecting the current reality where cities are crowded, he is intentionally increasing the number of figures in his recent paintings to explore the theme of "solitude within a crowd," examining the relationship where people are physically close yet emotionally distant.
(Source：Tokyo Art Beat)