b. 1955, Japan
Born in 1955 in Kobe, Japan, Shigeo Otake studied oil and mural painting at Kyoto City University of Arts. Influenced by the early Italian Renaissance, he spent two years in the late 1970s traveling through Europe, where he deepened his understanding of classical techniques and symbolic composition. He has long employed classical techniques such as egg tempera and fresco painting, using their precision and material depth to render complex imagery with subtle luminosity.
In 1985, during a walk in Kyoto, Otake encountered a towering wild mushroom nearly 40 centimeters tall. This chance discovery not only sparked a lifelong devotion to mycology but also seeded in his mind a haunting vision of a world transformed by fungal life.
Since the late 1980s, Otake has focused on painting subjects drawn from fungi, insects, and hybrid organisms, with a particular interest in the world of Cordyceps. His practice combines direct observation with imaginative taxonomy. In his paintings, Otake develops systematic compositions and symbolic structures based on years of field exploration and biological study.
He currently lives in Kobe, where his painting continues to evolve through an ongoing engagement with the natural world.