Biography
If we ask Shigeru Tanaka about his dream, he will smile and say:
“My dream is to draw a picture that make you feel like
you are listening to a warm melody”.
Shigeru Tanaka was born in 1970 in Gifu Prefecture,
in a rural town between two large rivers.
He grew up catching crayfish in the streams in the summer and playing with
the snow on the slope of Ibuki Mountain in the winter.
He also loved painting, so when he was 12, he learned oil painting.
After graduating from high school, he followed in
his father’s footsteps and became an architectural painter.
His experience painting exterior walls helps him with
the toning and color schemes in his paintings.
He also joined a theater company when he was young.
At that time, he appeared in musicals as an
actor and painted backgrounds for the scenario decoration.
Being involved in the theater was an
important experience for him, because actors develop
a special empathy and understanding of art.
And this also influenced his pictorial work.
In fact, it took a long time for Shigeru
Tanaka to start painting more seriously in an artistic way.
It was during one of the nights in spring of 2021,
in the middle of the pandemic, when he started just
by drawing his daughter in his sketchbook.
That’s how he fell in love with painting.
While he was studying art on his own, he found two great teachers.
The first one was Katsushika Hokusai,
from who studied ukiyo-e and dynamic composition.
The second one was Leonardo da Vinci,
from who studied the golden ratio and perspective.
He spends his time painting even at dawn, staying up late.
With a smile, without hesitation
“I feel painting is my mission, I feel like I’ve found it”he says.
Using both, his wall paint brush, and his art paint brush,
Shigeru Tanaka dreams about painting a warm melody on the canvas of the world.
Brief personal history (Biography)
Brief personal history
(Biography)
Shigeru Tanaka
| 1970 | Born in the city of Hashima, Gifu prefecture. |
| 1982 (12 years) | Oil painting studies for one year in the sixth grade of primary school (Kyoko Ota) |
| 1989 (19 years old) | Graduated from Gifu Prefectural Agricultural and Forestry High School, Department of Agricultural Chemistry. Beginning of the activities at the Tanaka Painting Workshop (he inherits the family business) |
| 2009 (39 years) | Cardiac pacemaker implantation |
| 2011 (41 years) | Small Kindness Award (School Painting Volunteer) |
| 2015 (45 years) | Higashikuninomiya Memorial Award (Tohoku Earthquake Volunteers) |
| 2020 (50 years) | Serially published 36 times in Paint Shop Diary, Paint Hochi newspaper |
| 2021 (51 years) | Start drawing independently |
Awards
| 2021 | Hashima City Art Exhibition (Grand Prize: First Prize in City Exhibition) |
| 2022 | All Japan Art Salon Painting Exhibition (Selected) |
| 2022 | Nimi Exhibition (International College of Culture Award) |
| 2022 | Nimi Exhibition (Excellence Award/Gifu Newspaper Broadcasting Award) |
| 2022 | Gifu Art Exhibition (First Grand Prize: Gifu Art Exhibition Award) |
| 2023 | Nichihakukai Exhibition (selected) |
Solo exhibitions and events
| 2023 | Arai Gallery in Ginza (solo exhibition) |
| 2023 | Yoshino Gallery (solo exhibition) |
| 2023 | Exhibition in New York |
Books and magazines features
| 2023 | Art Dictionary (art newspaper) |
| 2023 | Art World Data Book (Seikatsu no Tomosha) |
| 2023 | Contemporary Japanese Art (Art Window) |
Sales gallery
Yoshino Gallery Ltd.
3-10 Yoshinocho, Gifu City
Phone number 058 265 1023
Videos
Activities
Exhibition in New York
（July 25-29, 2023）
Yoshino Gallery Shigeru Tanaka Exhibition
（9th – 15th, April, 2023）
Arai Gallery in Ginza, Solo exhibition
（January 2023）
Volunteer in the Kumamoto earthquake
from May 2016 to October 2017 (10 times)
At that moment, Shigeru Tanaka noticed the roof tiles were really damaged due to the earthquake, so he drove a truck loaded with blue tarpaulins to fix the roofs.
There were many people looking up at the roof and saying to him, “It is unbelievable, I’ve never seen something like this before!”
After that, he went to Kumamoto as a volunteer every month.
Tohoku reconstruction volunteer activities after the 2011 Earthquake.
April 2011 – October 2012 (15 times)
“What should we do with this?” asked a mother of the Tohoku area affected by the Tsunami, looking at the muddy tatami mats strewn about the room with resentment.
In the evening, when the reconstruction work was finished and the volunteers were leaving, she put her hands together and with tears in her eyes said: “Volunteers, everything has been destroyed by the tsunami and I have nothing to give you.”
Tanaka replied to this mother, “We’ve already had a lot.”
