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Illuminating the modern city
Keita Morimoto transforms urban streets into rich, cinematic backdrops. His paintings, in oil and acrylic on canvas, show his mastery of artificial light. Borrowing techniques from Baroque painters, Morimoto’s subjects pose under dramatic spotlights – a twist on Rembrandt's contrasting use of light and shadow. Yet, the soft focus on the central figures give the paintings the atmospheric haze of a video game. Combined with hyperrealist figuration, the result is uncanny – like snapshots from a parallel universe almost identical to our own.
Tokyo takes on new life in Morimoto’s painting. He moved...
Bio
Keita Morimoto was born in 1990 in Osaka. He is based in Tokyo, Japan
Education
At 16 years old Morimoto left Japan to join high school in Ontario, Canada. He elected art and gym classes because they used the least English skills. Thanks to this, he became a painter.
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Morimoto tracks his studio schedule using Covey's Time Management Matrix. This tool organises his week to allow extra time to teach outdoor portrait painting. As his studio is in a basement, he says, “this is where I can get my weekly vitamin D so I don’t become a zombie.”