The experience of leaving Japan to study in the United States at the time of the emergence of Pop art had a critical effect on the direction of Masami Teraoka’s work. Grappling with cultural dislocation, he developed a rich, sensual and humorous art practice around his training in the classic techniques of ukiyo-e woodblock printing. Teraoka's work over the two decades of the 1970s and '80s draws on the ukiyo-e tradition to create paintings and prints that explore contemporary themes. McDonald’s, thong bikinis, condoms and computer parts are combined elegantly with geishas, samuri and kabuki characters to deliver astute social commentary on global culture and its sometimes horrifying imaginings.
Teraoka's work over the two decades of the 1970s and '80s draws on the ukiyo-e tradition to create watercolours, paintings and prints that explore contemporary themes. McDonald’s, thong bikinis, condoms and computer parts are combined elegantly with geishas, samurai and kabuki characters to deliver astute social commentary on global culture and its sometimes horrifying imaginings. Since the 1990s Teraoka's artistic approach has adopted the visual language of Northern European and Italian renaissance painting, but continues to comment on current political, social and cultural issues such as AIDS, issues of sexual abuse, media invasion of personal privacy, and the global ramifications of US political decisions.
Teraoka received his initial training in aesthetics at the Kwansei Gakuin University in Kobe before he emigrated at the age of 25 to study at the Los Angeles Harbor College and the Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles.
In 1996, the Arthur M Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, held a solo exhibition of Masami Teraoka’s work. Other major public galleries in the United States where his work has been shown include Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, in 2006; de Young Museum, San Francisco, in 2005; and the Asia Society, New York, in 1995. The artist’s international exhibitions include the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art in 2005; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in 2003; and the Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan, in 1990. Teraoka was featured in the 'Origins, Originality + Beyond: The Biennale of Sydney 1986'. Ascending Chaos: The Art of Masami Teraoka 1966 - 2006, a forty year career retrospective book on his work, will be released in February 2007 (Chronicle Books).
Gallery 5, QAG
A full-colour publication is available from the Gallery Store.
View Masami Teraoka artist Video (4 minutes 16 seconds)
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