Apt613 is thrilled to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) and its five-year anniversary in its new home this year!
The OAG’s Spring Vernissage on April 13 will celebrate the following artists: Norman Takeuchi, nichola feldman-kiss, and University of Ottawa MFA graduates Madeline Richards, Neeko Paluzzi, Maxime Boisvert-Huneault, Antoine O’Donoughue, and Joel Secter.
Ahead of the building-wide celebration, we took the opportunity to speak with Norman Takeuchi, the headlining artist behind the exhibition titled Retrospective, which opened at OAG on April 1. Takeuchi is an Ottawa-based artist who has been creating for more than six (!) decades. Norman’s wife Marion joined us on the call, as she played an important role in putting together this aptly titled Retrospective exhibition.
Throughout his expansive art career, Takeuchi explored a variety of media to create his pictures, from oil and acrylic on canvas to pastel, ink, and conté on paper. When I ask him what’s been his favourite medium so far, Takeuchi says that for drawing he likes conté but for painting, he likes acrylics, with graphite a close second.
Norman Takeuchi, Homage to Itchiku Kubota No. 4, 2004, pastel, ink and conté on paper, 76 x 57 cm. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Justin Wonnacott.
Note the distinction between drawing and painting: “I love to draw, so when I find I get too bogged down with painting and not sure where it’s going, I’ll take a break and start drawing and create a body of work just drawing instead of painting,” shares Takeuchi. “My drawings are quite different—when I pick up a pencil or conté, my brain goes into a different mode—I’m more interested in representational work, whereas with painting I’m more interested in abstraction, even if some images don’t appear to be an abstraction.”
For example, for his collection Long Division, the artist created a series of paintings using acrylic on canvas, with the final results both representational and abstract in their invitation to reflect. Takeuchi calls this series his most important exhibition, as he deeply explored the story of Japanese Canadians in the country in the last century: the dark past of internment camps, and looking towards the future from both a personal and communal perspective.
Norman Takeuchi, Wedding Song (Long Division Series) (diptych), 2020, acrylic on canvas, 122 x 200 cm total. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Justin Wonnacott.
“I wanted to make one last statement on this. Rather than general statements, though, I used pictures of familial memories: the forcible relocation of my family and then returning to Vancouver to start a new life.”
Aside from art practice, it’s been important for Takeuchi to share the Japanese Canadian story, as an amazing number of people still don’t know what happened to over 22,000 people between the years 1942 and 1949. Now, he feels like he’s said as much as he can with his work on his cultural heritage: “Maybe it’s time for me to move on. I’m exploring abstraction with a contained colour palette now. I may continue with the theme of my heritage, but maybe in a different way.”
Takeuchi also has a little-known graphic art career. However, as a designer, he created an important body of work for Expo 67 in Montreal—the international exposition celebrating Canada’s centennial—and Expo 70 in Osaka, a world’s fair hosted by Japan.
Norman Takeuchi, floor design in front of bandstand, Canadian Pavilion, Expo 67, Montreal, QC. Photographer Unknown. ©CreativeCommons, 2022.
Takeuchi credits the show coming together to curator Catherine Sinclair, who selected the works to be displayed to help tell a story of Takeuchi’s career as an artist and a designer: try different things and work hard.
“The role of the artist is to continue searching for new ideas. I’ve always felt there’s more to discover if I just kept looking and went into different areas and approaches to making pictures. When I get some sort of direction to pursue, I’ll take it as far as I can. When the solutions to making the pictures come too easily and I start to repeat myself, I know it’s time to change gears and find a new path. It’s happened a number of times over my art career,” Takeuchi says.
Looking towards the future, Takeuchi is continuing his daily pilgrimage to his studio and creating work. In fact, that’s his one piece of advice for young artists: “Go to the studio every day. Unless you do that, you’re not going to be able to produce work that is consistent. It’s so easy to get off the track. Do the work. You can’t sit there and wait for inspiration to come—you won’t get anything done. With painting, I leave it at a certain point and that way I know what to work on and how to get started the next day. I’m in the studio seven days a week. Maybe on Sunday, it’s 30 minutes, but I was still down there and did something.”
Working together as life partners, Marion and Norman look forward to continuing their work together—Marion as an archivist, researcher, and accountant, and Norman as the painter, coming together for shared meals and to talk about their days in their home in Ottawa.
Check out the OAG’s Spring Exhibition on April 13. The gallery is located at 50 Mackenzie King Bridge, next to Arts Court (accessible entrance at 10 Daly Avenue, next to the Hotel Le Germain). The OAG is fully accessible, with multi-user washrooms, and admission is always free. As well, free childcare is available during exhibition opening receptions.
