{"id":64389,"date":"2026-07-27T05:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T05:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/64389\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T05:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T05:25:10","slug":"we-join-japanese-artist-shigeo-otake-on-his-first-real-hong-kong-visit-it-is-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/64389\/","title":{"rendered":"We join Japanese artist Shigeo Otake on his first real Hong Kong visit. It is different"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The last time Shigeo Otake visited Hong Kong was in 1985, for a brief stopover long enough for a quick meal before continuing his journey.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">More than four decades later, the 71-year-old Japanese artist, who trained in early Italian Renaissance techniques at Kyoto City University of Arts, has returned \u2013 this time for his solo Hong Kong debut at art gallery White Cube.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In early July, Otake\u2019s exhibition, \u201cAgoraphilia\u201d, opened at the Hong Kong branch of the international gallery, as part of a White Cube initiative to show well-regarded artists not represented by the gallery. The July 9 preview drew admirers from as far as South Korea, Singapore and Shanghai.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The buzz is well-earned. Otake \u2013 currently the subject of a survey show at the Consortium Museum in Dijon, France \u2013 has garnered international acclaim for his fresco and egg tempera paintings that transport viewers into phantasmagorical realms of otherworldly hybrid creatures roaming medieval-style towns.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Otake\u2019s paintings unfold like allegories. In The Magnate (2025), a birdlike gargoyle, fixated on purchasing a necklace from a kneeling figure, stands in the centre of the piece. It is oblivious to the thief behind it, taking one of the gargoyle\u2019s tethered items. The scene serves as a metaphor for the insatiable desire of art collectors, whose hunger for new acquisitions blinds them to what they already own.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Magnate (2025) by Shigeo Otake. Otake\u2019s paintings unfold like allegories. Photo: Shigeo Otake\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/f4568274-e537-49b9-9815-049c6d03cf4a_4ee14c28.jpg\" title=\"The Magnate (2025) by Shigeo Otake. Otake\u2019s paintings unfold like allegories. Photo: Shigeo Otake\"\/>The Magnate (2025) by Shigeo Otake. Otake\u2019s paintings unfold like allegories. Photo: Shigeo Otake<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Night Parade of One Hundred Fungi (2026), by Shigeo Otake. Many of the buildings in his paintings are drawn from places that Otake has encountered. Photo: courtesy of White Cube\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/403e4a45-b187-4dfc-b512-00e8553ed8b1_d33340ba.jpg\" title=\"Night Parade of One Hundred Fungi (2026), by Shigeo Otake. Many of the buildings in his paintings are drawn from places that Otake has encountered. Photo: courtesy of White Cube\"\/>Night Parade of One Hundred Fungi (2026), by Shigeo Otake. Many of the buildings in his paintings are drawn from places that Otake has encountered. Photo: courtesy of White Cube<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time Shigeo Otake visited Hong Kong was in 1985, for a brief stopover long enough for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[41663,5236,4604,41666,1269,1030,8,17,1770,41670,41665,41664,657,41667,41668,41669,41671],"class_list":["post-64389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-agoraphilia","tag-art-gallery","tag-artist","tag-consortium-museum","tag-exhibition","tag-hong-kong","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-kobe","tag-mong-kok","tag-new-territories","tag-shigeo-otake","tag-south-korea","tag-tai-po-kau-nature-reserve","tag-teochew","tag-tung-choi-street","tag-white-cube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}