Biography
Takeshi Takano (born 1980, Kanagawa Prefecture; the slug 'takano-ken' arises from a partial-name romanisation of the artist's surname 鷹野 plus the first character of his given name) is a Japanese printmaker who works in collaboration with Daisuke Abe (born 1977, Kyoto) as a senior-junior duo trained at Aichi University of the Arts. Together they form one of the more distinctive collaborative printmaking units in contemporary Japan, and they were selected for the 3rd PATinKyoto Print Art Triennale 2022 under the joint billing 'Abe Daisuke / Takano Takeshi.'
The partnership formed at Aichi University of the Arts, where Daisuke Abe completed his MFA in 2004 (after a BFA in Print at Kyoto Seika University in 2002) and Takeshi Takano completed his MFA in 2005 (after a BFA in Print at Tama Art University in 2003). Their professional collaboration draws on this senior-junior dynamic, with each artist's training tradition contributing to a hybrid practice that combines Tokyo-school print rigour with Kyoto-school material attention.
The duo's mature work is concentrated on large-scale intaglio printing, with particular focus on architectural subjects — houses and fishing vessels — depicted through extensive archival research and intensive labor-intensive printing techniques. The five PATinKyoto-documented works ('abetakano-01' through '05') represent the mature output of the partnership.
Major exhibitions include the AOMORI PRINT Triennale 2014 at the Aomori City Art Gallery, 'TRANSITIONS: International Exhibition of Prints 2015' at the China Printmaking Museum in Shenzhen — a significant venue for contemporary East Asian print exchange — VOCA 2018 at the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo, and 'Graphica Creativa 2019' at the Jyväskylä Art Museum in Finland (a major European print triennial). The combination of major Japanese national venues (Aomori, Ueno) with leading East Asian (Shenzhen) and European (Jyväskylä) print exhibitions establishes the duo as one of the more institutionally credentialed mid-career Japanese print collaborations.
While the slug 'takano-ken' is provided as a single-artist identifier, the actual artistic identity is the Abe-Takano duo and the bio reflects that joint identity. Of the two, Takeshi Takano (鷹野健) is the artist whose given name corresponds most closely to the slug 'ken'; the duo's PATinKyoto registration and group exhibitions are typically billed as 'Abe Daisuke / Takano Takeshi' or 'Abe Takano' as a unit. The five PATinKyoto-2022 sample images represent the joint practice rather than individual sub-bodies of work.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1980
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 5
Frequently Asked Questions
Takeshi Takano (born 1980, Kanagawa Prefecture; the slug 'takano-ken' arises from a partial-name romanisation of the artist's surname 鷹野 plus the first character of his given name) is a Japanese printmaker who works in collaboration with Daisuke Abe (born 1977, Kyoto) as a senior-junior duo trained at Aichi University of the Arts. Together they form one of the more distinctive collaborative printmaking units in contemporary Japan, and they were selected for the 3rd PATinKyoto Print Art Triennale 2022 under the joint billing 'Abe Daisuke / Takano Takeshi.'
Takeshi Takano (with Daisuke Abe) was active born in 1980. They were associated with the Contemporary Mokuhanga movement.
Takeshi Takano (with Daisuke Abe)'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.
