Keita Morimoto - Oasis

Keita Morimoto is a visual artist working in Toronto, Ontario. Morimoto was born and raised in Osaka, Japan, and moved to Canada in 2008 in order to pursue his education at OCAD University. He has exhibited his work in several group shows around Toronto, Tokyo, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, as well as participated in a number of charity auction events to raise money for Japan relief after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Morimoto has recently mounted a solo exhibition in the Media/Retail Space of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art. His work has also been included in Casey House’s 2014 Art with Heart Auction collection. Keita Morimoto’s newest series of paintings extends his ongoing theme of youth escapism and fantasy. Spirit-like nude figures take a stroll into a dark wilderness in search of their own utopia. Some are caught simply walking away from reality, while others look startled or meditative. Morimoto uses a spotlight-like light in his images to create a moment where this dark fictional world is being disrupted by the presence of real humans, as if a fawn were to be caught by car lights at night. It is the metaphor of the startled deer that Morimoto attempts to reflect on by alluding to our own moments of fantasy and escapism from reality, and the dysphoria we experience when those moments are shaken. The beautiful, sinister places these nude youths inhabit become our own places of escape when we abandon reality in search of our own oasis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZFp9EI4YKE