Hisaya Taira began producing photorealistic paintings based on photographs after he graduated from Tama Art University, Tokyo, in 1984. For his subjects, he takes scenes that we rarely pay attention to; mundane places such as empty parking lots, deserted stairwells, corridors, underground platforms, and escalators. Completely ordinary places that we have all been in at some point or another. Captured using meticulous brushwork combined with the high degree of accuracy allowed by acrylic paint, the scenes are stripped of all emotion.

Light also plays an important role in Taira’s work; sometimes it is artificial from electric ceiling bulbs or the glare of electric advertising billboards, and sometimes natural with bright sunlight illuminating his street scenes.

See commentary by Tsutomu Miura, Curator, Tottori Prefectural Museum, The Paintings of Hisaya Taira, (Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Osaka, 2016), p. 86-91.