The figures in his paintings all gaze in completely different directions.

I want to avoid ending up in the usual stories.

I want to deliberately stumble, step by step. (Daisuke Tamano)

When faced with Daisuke Tamano's work, we are enveloped in a strange sense of visibility and a pleasant bewilderment.

What we see are nostalgic Showa-era landscapes and symbols (signboards, products). Yet they are severed from their original contexts, effortlessly derailing from the tracks of the “stories” we know.

Tamano's expression connects to the lineage of “deconstruction of meaning” found in Surrealism and Dadaism. Yet his approach is more lighthearted, filtered through the indigenous Japanese sensibilities of “humor” and “playful feigned ignorance.”

Just as René Magritte shook the world with serene dissonance, Tamano montages fragments of daily life, rejecting theoretical interpretation. The figures within the frame face “every which way,” their gazes never meeting. It is precisely this void born of their complete disengagement that presents the viewer with the richness of “meaninglessness.”

True to Tamano's words, “I want to step off the path, one step at a time,” he carefully avoids the “correct answer” with assured technique, feigning ignorance. It appears like a quiet yet resolute resistance against modern society, accustomed to consuming easily digestible “stories.”

When one seeks meaning there, Tamano gently, and with feigned ignorance, pushes them away. Beyond that “absurdity” lies a dry laugh and an inexplicable freedom that knows no bounds. It is the texture of a world that exists only beyond the point of “stepping off the path.”

1961 Born in Osaka Prefecture

1985 Dropped out of Waseda University Faculty of Law, aspired to become a painter

2009 Solo exhibition “Miracle Kafka” (’10, ’12, unseal contemporary / Nihonbashi)

Illustrated pamphlet for Nylon 100°C theater production “Setagaya Kafka”

2011 Group exhibition “Gekitotsu Exhibition” at unseal contemporary / Nihonbashi

2019 Solo exhibition “The Great Olympic Exhibition” at Ottokobe Museum, Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture

2020 Group exhibition “Kikon” at Gallery Yusai / Nara

2021 Group Exhibition “Art Fair Terminal” THE TERMINAL KYOTO

Solo Exhibition “Negative Legacy” (Note Gallery / Osaka)

2022 Solo Exhibition “Under the Sky of Hirakata” (Note Gallery / Osaka)

2023 Group Exhibition “The Lost Treasures of the Painting Thief Kurawanka” (Note Gallery / Osaka)

2024 Solo Exhibition “Normal Mind” Note Gallery (Note Gallery / Osaka)

2025 Solo Exhibition “PEACE” (Gallery Yusai / Nara)

Solo Exhibition “Summer Solstice” (KUSAKABE GALLERY / Kyoto)

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