BIGEI

Born in Nagoya in 1942.
Graduated from Aichi Prefectural Asahigaoka High School, Art Department, in 1960.
Graduated from Musashino Art University in 1966.

After high school, studied under Tatsushiro Takahata. While at university, studied oil painting with Nagao Yamaguchi, Yoshio Mori, and Saburo Aso.

During university, frequently visited cutting-edge contemporary art galleries such as Minami Gallery and Tokyo Gallery, where he encountered artists of the Informel movement like Jean Fautrier and Pierre Soulages, as well as American contemporary artists including Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Sam Francis. He was deeply influenced by these artists and closely witnessed various art movements happening in Tokyo at the time.

After graduating, he returned to Nagoya and began producing distinctive free paintings and drawings that combined elements of American contemporary art with Eastern color and form influences, reflecting the psychedelic trends of the era.

Around age 28, while teaching at university, he continued to pursue the style he had developed, and from the late 1970s, he arrived at a unique minimalistic form resembling a single key shape. Since then, he has consistently produced paintings repeating his original minimalist motifs.

From the beginning to the present, he has maintained a technique of painting freehand without preliminary sketches, using thin brushes to connect shapes and layering colors multiple times to create a strong, durable surface.

His forms and colors change subtly with each era but continue to evolve today, resulting in a highly original, pop-influenced style. From his works in the 1960s through today, his exceptional spatial composition skills and the obsessive repetition of a singular motif reflect a sustained artistic depth.

At first glance, his canvases may appear simple or empty, but as seen in his early works, they can be interpreted as the result of immense internal information processing and creative energy.