Mitsuo Kano Exhibition （Galerie Tokyo Humanité） ｜Tokyo Art Beat

Mitsuo Kano (1933-) is a self-taught artist who began producing copperplate prints in the mid-1950s. During the 1960s, his work gained recognition at various international exhibitions, including the Ljubljana International Biennial of Graphic Arts and the Tokyo International Print Biennale, establishing him as one of Japan’s leading artists.

Kano’s early works primarily consisted of monochromatic copperplate prints that evoked plants and organisms. He later expanded his repertoire to include metal prints, lithographs, and objets d’art. His collaborations with poets such as Shuzo Takiguchi and Makoto Ooka. His ventures into stage design and bookwork, demonstrate the breadth of his artistic activities. From the 1980s onward, Kano began creating vibrant oil paintings. In recent years, his solo exhibitions have been held at the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art (2000), the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art in Kamakura (2013), and the CCGA Contemporary Graphic Art Center in Fukushima (2017). His work was also featured in “Shuzo Takiguchi / Mitsuo Kano ‘The Semiotic of the Seagull'” at the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design in 2019.

In 1983, the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art held the “Mitsuo Kano Paintings ’80-83” exhibition, showcasing all 60 pieces created during the three years since his debut in oil painting in 1980. His expressive world, filled with aurora-like colors, was highly acclaimed.

This exhibition features three large oil paintings displayed at the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art and one oil painting from 1988, along with drawings from the 1970s “Lightning Catcher” series and metal prints from the 1960s. Additionally, starting May 18, the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art’s collection exhibition will include works exhibited in the 1983 exhibition.