Takao Tanabe

Takao Tanabe

Equinox Gallery is delighted to present an exhibition of works by Takao Tanabe that span almost seven decades and have come directly from the artist’s personal collection. Takao Tanabe is an important figure in Canadian painting and printmaking; this exhibition ranges from geometric abstractions of the 1960s through to his iconic prairie and west coast landscape paintings.

Tanabe has been a leading figure in Canadian art for over sixty years, his artistic career has included over 70 solo exhibitions. Tanabe has received honourary doctorates from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and the University of Lethbridge, the Order of British Columbia (1993), the Order of Canada (1999), the Governor General’s Visual and Media Arts Award (2003), and the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts (2013). His work is included in many private and public collections, including the Vancouver Art Gallery, Tate Museum (UK), Cleveland Museum, Edmonton Art Gallery, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Art Gallery of Ontario, Glenbow Museum, and the National Gallery of Canada.

For a list of available works, please contact the gallery at info@equinoxgallery.com 

Takao Tanabe
A Major Exhibition

Takao Tanabe has been a leading figure in Canadian art for over sixty years. Born in 1926 in Seal Cove, British Columbia, Tanabe was interned by the Canadian Government with his family and many other Japanese-Canadians during World War II. The end of the war took the artist further east, to the Winnipeg School of Art, graduating in 1949. He pursued further artistic studies in New York under Hans Hoffman, London, and Japan, where he learned Japanese ink painting (sumi-e) and calligraphy.

Takao Tanabe, The Prairie Hills 2/80, 1980

Takao Tanabe, Untitled #3A, 1968

Takao Tanabe, Spanish Banks, 1988

Takao Tanabe, Inside Passage, Stephen Island, 2007

Takao Tanabe, Installation View 8, 2021

Takao Tanabe, Installation View 5, 2021

Takao Tanabe, Installation View 7, 2021

Takao Tanabe, Installation View 6, 2021