Biography
Shinpey Ozaki (born 1987 in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture) is a Japanese painter and printmaker whose work centres on flat-affect images of the Japanese suburban landscape drained of human presence — parking lots, drive-throughs, light-industrial frontages, generic apartment blocks. Made principally in acrylic on canvas and panel, the pictures set the contemporary built environment of the Tohoku region against a current of mythological and historical association, and he is included here on the basis of his selection for the 3rd PATinKyoto Print Art Triennale in 2022.
Ozaki graduated from Iwate University (2006-2010), in Morioka in northeastern Japan. His regional positioning — Sendai as base, Iwate as alma mater, and Tohoku galleries such as Cyg and MORIOKA daiichi in Iwate as recurring venues — sets him apart from the dominant Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka axis of contemporary Japanese print and locates him within the Tohoku artist community that has worked in formally restrained terms in the years since the 2011 earthquake.
Major exhibitions include the solo shows 'DRY EYE' at Gallery TURNAROUND in Sendai (2016), 'Lonely Planet' at MORIOKA daiichi gallery and Cyg art gallery in Iwate (2018), '1942019' at RED AND BLUE GALLERY in Tokyo (2019), and 'N.E.blood 21 vol.73' at the Rias Ark Museum of Art in Kesennuma (2020). Selection for VOCA 2016 at the Ueno Royal Museum and inclusion in 'Tricolore2019' at TOKI-NO-WASUREMONO in Tokyo extend his presence to the Tokyo institutional circuit, while repeated participation in Art Festa Iwate at the Iwate Museum of Art reflects ongoing local institutional support.
Ozaki's position within the contemporary Japanese scene is that of a Tohoku-anchored painter-printmaker whose flat, graphic work reads more readily as expanded printmaking than as either pure painting or conventional printmaking. The 2022 PATinKyoto selection placed him in the Kansai print-triennial context, while his Tohoku gallery base has maintained his regional identity. His name is romanised variously as 'Shinpey Ozaki,' 'Ozaki Shinpey,' or 'Shinpei Ozaki'; the PATinKyoto entry uses 'Shinpey,' which is followed here.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1987
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Subjects
- Landscapes
- Works Indexed
- 4
Frequently Asked Questions
Shinpey Ozaki (born 1987 in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture) is a Japanese painter and printmaker whose work centres on flat-affect images of the Japanese suburban landscape drained of human presence — parking lots, drive-throughs, light-industrial frontages, generic apartment blocks. Made principally in acrylic on canvas and panel, the pictures set the contemporary built environment of the Tohoku region against a current of mythological and historical association, and he is included here on the basis of his selection for the 3rd PATinKyoto Print Art Triennale in 2022.
Shinpey Ozaki was active born in 1987. They were associated with the Contemporary Mokuhanga movement.
Shinpey Ozaki's work was shaped by the Contemporary Mokuhanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Contemporary Mokuhanga: Contemporary mokuhanga (literally "wood-block print") encompasses artists working from approximately 1970 to the present who continue or reinvent traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques.
Shinpey Ozaki's prints frequently feature landscapes.
