Name: OPENING: Norman Takeuchi - NEW WORKS
Start: 2025-10-09T18:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-10-09T20:00:00-04:00
Location: 858 Bank Street, Suite 101, Ottawa, ON, Canada, Ontario K1S 3W3

𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧! 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝!
𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐀𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐢 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐟𝐞, 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭.
To RSVP, please click the ticket link.
Email [email protected] to request a preview catalogue with the subject line, Takeuchi Catalogue
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𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓
Norman Takeuchi was born in Vancouver in 1937. Takeuchi and his family were among the thousands of Japanese Canadians forcibly removed from the West Coast during World War II. Their internment and subsequent displacement had a lasting impact on his life and art.
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.
Initially, Takeuchi’s work was abstract, with little overt reference to his cultural background. Over time, however, he began to explore his identity as a Japanese Canadian more directly. Influenced by artists such as Itchiku Kubota, he began integrating traditional Japanese imagery—kimonos, geishas, calligraphy—into his work, often juxtaposed with modern abstraction. This fusion became a powerful way to explore the tensions and harmonies of his bicultural experience.
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.