Artists | MAKI Gallery | MAKI

Born in 1989 in Osaka, Japan, Takuro Tamura graduated from Kyoto University of the Arts (formerly Kyoto University of Art and Design) in 2016, after which he worked as an assistant at SANDWICH, an artist collective led by Kohei Nawa. Influenced by Banksy and Kohei Nawa, Tamura takes a bird’s eye view of things and distances them from their original context. In doing so, he reassesses the way things are and creates new meaning.
For example, in the series Lovers, the artist makes traffic mirrors intertwine with each other, which is all it takes to humanize them as inseparable lovers. Tamura isolates the traffic mirrors from their familiar context of the intersection and gives them new significance. One mirror nestles into the other, abandoning their original role of “reflecting the danger that comes from a blind spot.” In this way, the viewer is left with a sense of wonder and fascination, as if the mirror were a face. In fact, Tamura saw existing mirrors at intersections as having the potential to be anthropomorphic, which he sublimated in his work. By changing an object’s usual location and integrating other elements, Tamura inverts contexts to reveal new and hidden meanings.
Recent solo exhibitions include 5W＜1H, MAKI Gallery (Tokyo, 2021) and OUT SIDE, y gion (Kyoto, 2018) as well as group exhibitions in Osaka, Tokyo, and Kyoto. Tamura’s Sphere asphalt φ1200 has been on view at Starbucks KYOTO BAL since 2019, and his Lovers#4 has been exhibited at sequence MIYASHITA PARK (Shibuya, Tokyo) since 2020.