Introduction to Osamu Obi
Osamu Obi (b. 1965, Kanagawa) is a leading figure in contemporary Japanese realist painting and currently a professor at Musashino Art University. His works are quiet and restrained, distinguished by his precise sensitivity to light and emotional nuance, allowing his subjects to emerge slowly and subtly from illumination.
He has received major figurative art honors in Japan, including the Showakai Award and the Grand Prize of the Ryohei Koiso Award Exhibition, and was selected by the Agency for Cultural Affairs for advanced study of classical painting in Paris. This experience enriched his practice—melding the depth of European classical techniques with the silence and contemplative spirit unique to Eastern aesthetics.
Obi’s works are held in numerous museum collections, including the Hoki Museum, Kurayoshi Museum, Hasegawa Machiko Art Museum, and Kakunodate Town Art Museum. He is also the author of several influential books—Rembrandt’s Medium: Investigating the Master’s Techniques Through Copying, Traces, and The Structure of Painting: When Pigment Begins to Speak. His research into the physical properties of paint is particularly notable; through meticulous layering, he builds a “thickness of time,” imbuing his tranquil compositions with profound material weight and inner tension.
Obi has said: “The most important things are always right before our eyes. I simply listen for their secrets, translate them into the language of pigment, and record them on canvas. The painting then begins to breathe as a ‘silent artwork.’ I hope viewers, like myself, can listen closely to the quiet murmurs of all things.”
1965 Born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Education
1990 Graduate School of Formative Art (Oil Painting), Musashino Art University
1988 Faculty of Formative Art (Oil Painting), Musashino Art University
Other Experience
2010–2011 Research Fellow, Agency for Cultural Affairs Program for Overseas Study for Emerging Artists, Paris
Solo Exhibitions
1999 Shunpudo Gallery, Tokyo
2007 KIAF 2007, Shunpudo Gallery, Seoul
2015 Gallery Suchi, Tokyo
2018 Gallery Daikaku, Osaka
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 Four-Person Exhibition: Fumihiko Gomi, Osamu Obi, Kenichiro Ishiguro, Lo Chan Peng, Tokyo Art Fair, Gallery Suchi
2022 One World, Gallery Suchi
2021 Water and Oil: Osamu Obi & Yuko Nagayama Two-Person Exhibition, Gallery Suchi
2020 The Arrival of Hyperrealist Painting: Selections from the Hoki Museum Collection, Bunkamura The Museum
2018 MEAM & Hoki Museum Exhibition, Barcelona, Spain
2013 DOMANI: The Art of Tomorrow, The National Art Center, Tokyo
2012, 2014 The 1st Aesthetics of Existence, Date City Funka Bay Cultural Research Institute Artists Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Stores
2012–2016 Gravity Exhibition, Gallery Suchi
2010 Hoki Museum Opening Commemorative Special Exhibition
Awards
2006 Prime Minister’s Award, Hakujitsukai Exhibition
2005 2nd Aesthetics of Existence, Takashimaya Department Stores
2004 Second Prize, 6th Maeda Kanji Grand Prize Exhibition, Kurayoshi Museum
1999 Minister of Education Encouragement Award, Hakujitsukai Exhibition
1996 Japan–Korea Western Painting Artists Exchange Exhibition, Yokohama & Seoul
1991 First Prize, Tokyo Central Art Museum Oil Painting Grand Prize Exhibition
