Short Biography

Ryuku Otsuka (b. 1996, Tokyo) is a Japanese contemporary artist based in Paris. He practices Nihonga, the traditional Japanese painting method using natural pigments and minerals. Embracing this technique as a way to ground his cultural identity, Otsuka explores themes of memory, presence, and the dialogue between past and present through layered brushwork and patient repetition.

Having left Japan at the age of fifteen, his relationship to Nihonga developed as both an artistic and personal reconnection with cultural heritage. The slow, material-driven process of painting becomes central to his practice, reflecting a resistance to speed and standardization within contemporary visual culture.

Influenced by the philosophy of craftsmanship and by Marcel Duchamp’s notion of the spectator as an active participant, Otsuka creates works that invite contemplation and open interpretation. His paintings often draw from fleeting moments, stillness, and subjective memory, creating spaces where time is suspended and meaning emerges through perception.

Through his work, Otsuka seeks to position traditional craft not as nostalgia, but as a living and critical language within contemporary art.

Artist Resume – Ryuku Otsuka

Education

  • Parsons Paris, The New School Paris, 2017 - 2021 / Barchelor of Fine Arts

Solo Exhibition

2026

  • Quand le temps devient peinture, L'atelier Montmartre, Paris, France

Group Exhibitions / Artfairs

2026

  • Artisans Japan, Minato Mirai, Yokohama, Japan
  • Art Expo New York, New York City, NY, The United States
  • Time, Space, and Perception, UsagiNY, Brooklyn, NY, The United States
  • Exposition de l'atelier NIHONGA, Association Culturelle Franco-Japonaise de Tenri, France

2022 

  • Marché Jeune Créateurs, La Fondation FIMINCO, Romainville
  • Authentic Reproduction, Galerie D, Romainville 
  • BBFL, Brooklyn

2021

  •  BFA AMT Thesis Exhibition, Galerie D, Foundation FIMINCO, May

Awards

2026

  • Discovery Collection, Art Expo New York, New York City, NY, The United States

Other Activities

  • Arthe et Seasonalitea, Rennes, France, 2026
  • Practitioner of Traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony, Urasenke 2025 -
  • Performance de l’art, Nuit Europé de Musées, Centre Pompidou, Beaubourg, May 2022
  • Designer Assistant at Men's Textile and Accessory in Louis Vuitton, under Virgil Abloh, July 2021 - January 2022
  • Instructor at Artistic Camp, Pantin Camping, Centre National de la Dance, June 2021
  • Creative Assistant of Kenzo Takada, Paris, 2019 - 2020

- 技 - Against Disappearance

An artist’s meditation on time, craft, and the quiet resistance of making things slowly.

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- 和 - The Art of Presence

In a world obsessed with efficiency, I put my phone away to find the "Little Observer" hiding within the defiant character of city pigeons and street flowers.

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