Well Written Artist Statement

Shintaro Ohata

Shintaro Ohata is an artist who depicts little things in everyday life like scenes of a movie and captures all sorts of light in his work with a unique touch: convenience stores at night, city roads on rainy day and fast-food shops at dawn etc. His paintings show us ordinary sceneries as dramas. He is also known for his characteristic style; placing sculptures in front of paintings, and shows them as one work, a combination of 2-D and 3-D world. He says that it all started from when he wondered “I could bring the atmosphere or dynamism of my paintings with a more different way if I place sculptures in front of paintings”. Many viewers tend to assume that there is a light source set into his work itself because of the strong expression of lights in his sculpture. His further steps have been noticed as he has been featured by lots of media from overseas, including a cultural magazine from the USA that featured him on their front cover and a long interview.

I did an entry on this artist, and when we were given this assignment I thought of his statement on his website.

His statement says that he "depicts little things in everyday life...and captures all sorts of light in his work..." That stood out the most to me, because I see it in all of his works. He shows these scenes that you would normally just see and look away without seeing the potential or already existing beauty. 

In his statement he also says that he creates these little scenes and makes them dramatic. I think he does this by using lighting. The lighting is what gives his sculptures and paintings this dramatic and beautiful feel. 

I think his artist statement is successful because he very simply describes what he is trying to portray and show through his work. I also feel that he doesn't just say these things, he actually wants to put emotion into his work and it isn't just about making it look pretty. He does create these very dramatic and emotional paintings and sculptures that fit with what he has to say about them. Overall, he didn't go too in-depth about what he wants his pieces to be, he just describes his inspiration and how he wants to highlight these little moments.