Norman Takeuchi and Akira Yoshikawa: Selected Works

Norman Takeuchi and Akira Yoshikawa: Selected Works, features the deeply contemplative practices of two artists whose individual careers span over 50 years. 

Both Takeuchi and Yoshikawa’s lived experiences have been directly shaped by the forced displacement and internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. The enduring impact of their family’s experiences during this time period continue to manifest within the subject matter of their artwork and approaches to creating, with their practices forming bridges between Japanese and North American culture and aesthetics, whilst also speaking to the complexity of this dual experience.

Akira Yoshikawa was born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1949. During the war, his mother, Toshiko Yoshikawa, and her family were forced to leave their farm in Mission B.C. and moved to Hiroshima, where they subsequently experienced the devastation of the atomic bomb and its aftermath. Toshiko returned to Canada with Akira in the 1960s, where he later attended art school. She was a lifelong advocate for peace and nuclear disarmament, a sensibility that can be traced through Yoshikawa’s mindful and intentional art practice, which offers opportunity for pause and reflection. This exhibition presents a selection of Yoshikawa’s mixed media drawings and sculptures created between 1996 and 2024. Though minimal, his artworks exude a quiet energy, both lively and still, weightless and grounded.

Norman Takeuchi combines bold abstraction with figurative motifs that speak to Japanese heritage, cultural duality, and memory. His thought-provoking paintings included in this exhibition relate specifically to the wartime period. It is a great privilege to exhibit Takeuchi’s painting Lumber Camp for the first time - a work which directly connects to his family’s experience of forced removal from their Vancouver home in 1942. Also included in the exhibition are two large-scale diptychs from Takeuchi’s Long Division series, which acts as a meditation on the division that existed for Japanese Canadians prior to, and during, the Second World War.

This exhibition is presented in dialogue with Mitchell Akiyama and Emma Nishimura: Paradise.

Norman Takeuchi, C.M. was born in Vancouver in 1937. He studied at the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design), where he focused on painting and graphic design. After graduation, he spent a formative year in London, England, holding his first solo exhibition. Upon returning to Canada in the 1960s, he worked as a designer with the federal government, contributing to major projects like Expo 67 in Montreal and Expo 70 in Osaka. He later joined the Canadian Museum of Nature as a senior designer while continuing to paint. He exhibited in a group show at the National Gallery of Canada in 1965. In 1996, he left design to pursue art full-time.

Takeuchi’s work has been widely exhibited and is held in public collections, including the TD Bank Collection, Canada Council Art Bank, the Canadian War Museum, Royal Ontario Museum, and the Ottawa Art Gallery. In 2023, the Ottawa Art Gallery hosted a career-spanning retrospective, Shapes in Between: Norman Takeuchi – A Retrospective, highlighting over six decades of his artistic evolution. In 2023, Takeuchi was appointed to the Order of Canada for his contributions to the arts and for his role in preserving and sharing Japanese Canadian history through visual storytelling. He is currently based in Ottawa.

Akira Yoshikawa’s multidisciplinary practice bridges Japanese heritage and philosophy with the principles of Formalism in North American art. His diverse interests in art, architecture, design, and music deeply inform his creative approach.

Yoshikawa has exhibited at notable public institutions, including the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Gallery of Peterborough, Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery, Mercer Union, Art Gallery of Algoma, and the Koffler Centre. His works are held in prominent collections such as the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen's University, the Art Gallery of Guelph, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Global Affairs Canada, the Glenbow Museum, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. He is based in Toronto.