Japanese artist plans Malta exhibition

Japanese artist Takumasa Ono visited Malta for the first time with his wife and manager Mari and son Loshin during the Christmas season and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

After visiting the St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity and many art galleries, he set his mind on planning an exhibition in Malta, if possible in July when Malta could have become the venue for the 2005 EU-Japan Year of People-to-People.

However, when he got back to England, where he lives, he found out that the National Trust in UK had other plans for that month. So, Takumasa Ono is now planning to hold his exhibition in Malta at St James Cavalier in November or December and is already in touch with Chris Gatt on this matter.

During their brief stay, the Ono family was fascinated with the history, culture and art that Malta and Gozo have to offer and is making plans to come for several other visits.

Born in Tokyo in 1959, Takumasa Ono worked as an artist painting Japanese nature until he travelled to Britain as an official artist of the Association of National Trusts in Japan in 1999.

He held a solo exhibition and sumi-e workshops as an official programme of JAPAN2001, a large scale culture programme held in 2001 in the UK to introduce Japanese culture.

Since then, he has been holding these exhibitions and workshops across the UK every year. More than a thousand children have participated in his sumi-e workshops in the past four years alone.

Last year, an exhibition of sumi-e painted by English children at his workshops was held at the Japanese Embassy in London.

He will hold his solo exhibition and sumi-e workshops as an official programme of the 2005 EU-Japan Year of People-to-People Exchanges.

His solo exhibitions of print works have also been held in New Zealand, Los Angeles and New York. His works were featured on a Japanese TV programme and used for the 2004 Toyota Motor Corporation calendar.