Norio Takamiya is a Japanese born and trained Woodblock Printer in the Ukiyo-e, "Pictures of the Floating World" artistic genre. In 1975 he was awarded a BA from the National Chiba University, then in 1978 an MA Fine Arts from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Japan. After moving  to Australia in 1989, Takamiya completed a MA in Creative Arts, in 1991 and later in 1996, a Doctorate of Creative Arts, at the University of Wollongong.

His works are humorous commentaries with cultural and political undercurrent. The interaction between the East and the West are juxtaposed through his clever quotations of iconic images of art and popular culture.



"The subject is ‘cultural juxtaposition’ in both its form and content. As the art form, I intentionally use this traditional Japanese woodblock printing technique as an alternative in this culturally Western-dominated society and in this full of digitally-generated-image era. As the content, I juxtapose different elements such as East/West, new/old, usual/unusual and so on. I believe, by doing so each element unexpectedly starts revealing a new or another face, which is different charm from the original.

This subject, of course, relates to my cultural identity – living in Australia as a Japanese. How does a cultural value reconcile with a global value? I still haven’t got a clear answer to this age-old question. I wish these works would be a part of the answer."

Download Norio Takamiya's CV

Featured Exhibitions

2015    Contemporary Japanese Woodblock Prints, with Terry McKenna
2014    Artists Celebrating 41 Years
2009    Re-thinking