the 17-year old artist with 55 of her paintings which are on display at Taro Okamoto Museum of Art (through April 11, 2021)
all images courtesy the artist
Chifu Onishi is a 17-year old painter primarily working in oils. A junior attending high school in Osaka, Onishi creates bold and expressive paintings that often emphasize the shape of the human form through light, shadow and color. During a 4-month period when schools were shut down last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, Onishi created a series of 4 artworks that have now won the Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art, making Onishi the youngest recipient over of one of Japan’s most prestigious art awards.
“I imagined the corona as a ‘planet of fear’ and depicted the process of its approach to the earth, its collision with earth, and how it becomes one with earth,” says Onishi, speaking about her series Requicoros, which is a combination of the words requiem and corona. The 4-part series, each its own chapter, depicts various stages such as panic, fighting, losing sight of more important meanings of life and, finally, acceptance.
Onishi was notified that she had been selected the winner late last year and has since been tirelessly planning her exhibition, which is now on display at the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, along with other recipients. Her 4 winning works are on display alongside roughly 50 older works, creating a grand collage of oil paintings that are at once both a tour de force but also build anticipation around what the artist will go on to create in the future. You can keep up with the artist on Instagram and Twitter.
The exhibition is on display now through April 11, 2021.
The Taro Okamoto Memorial Award for Contemporary Art, commonly referred to as the “TARO Award”, was established shortly after the avant-garde artist passed away in 1996 and is doled out annually. Recipients not only receive the opportunity to showcase their work in the museum but receive cash awards as well.
February 23, 2021 at 11:10 pm
Amazing!! Such a great talent!!