Taku Obata

Taku Obata was born in 1980 in Saitama, Japan. During his art studies in the 90s, he was part of the hip-hop and break dance scene as a member of the Unity Selection Crew.

In 2008, he graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts and won the prestigious Tokyo Wonder Wall Grand Prize. He continues to exhibit in Japan where the Nakamura Keith Haring Museum dedicated a solo exhibition to him in 2012. In 2014, his career took on an international scope as the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York devoted a solo exhibition to him.

Taku Obata's work revolves around the body in motion, particularly in breakdance. Inspired by traditional Japanese artistic expressions such as Buto dance or Noh theater. The moving body becomes static through a life-size wooden sculpture.

As a modern day samurai, Taku Obata establishes an artistic path between the traditional Japanese technique of woodcarving and the modernity of his subject, emanating from the vibrant hip-hop culture and showing a dynamic decomposition of movement.

Découvrir ses oeuvres