Takeshi Ishii

Takeshi Ishii is a Japanese artist based in Tokyo. He began painting in his late thirties and has focused primarily on oil painting since 2019. Working mainly in figurative and realist painting, he explores the human figure and, in particular, the human face.

His work was selected for the Hoki Museum Platinum Grand Prize Exhibition in 2025. In 2026, his painting Metamorphosis Eve was selected as a finalist in ModPortrait 2025 and exhibited in Spain.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I mainly paint the human face.

I cannot fully explain why I am drawn to it. For me, the face—and especially the eyes—holds a particular significance. Although I begin with a specific person and carefully observe their individual features, I am not necessarily trying to portray that person’s personality or personal story. As I paint, the face gradually becomes an entrance to something more abstract.

I do not yet know exactly what lies beyond that entrance. It may have something to do with human existence, with something within myself, or with something I cannot yet name. Rather than trying to explain it in words, I continue to search for it through painting.

At times, I can look back at a work and find ideas of acceptance or salvation within it, but these are not concepts that I deliberately impose on a painting from the beginning. Painting often reveals something that I myself have not yet understood, and for this reason I do not want to define the meaning of my work too narrowly.

Recently, I have also been placing figures within symbolic spaces, combining them with elements such as traditional Japanese clothing, plants, and traces of time. My subjects and methods may continue to change, but the human face will probably remain important to me.

Through painting the face, I am trying to approach something that I cannot yet fully grasp.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

2026
ModPortrait 2025 — Painting Finalist
Spain

2025
Hoki Museum Platinum Grand Prize Exhibition
Hoki Museum, Chiba, Japan
Selected Artist