5 questions for artist Taiyo Okamoto

Taiyo Okamoto, artist from Japan. Photo © Ikuro Kambe

1.Tell us what you do and your beginnings.

I work with many different mediums: paint, paper, my body, photography, digital, etc. When I was 3 years old I was drawing with crayons and colored pencils whenever I wanted, and thought I’d be an artist when I grew up. However growing up I became interested in other things.

When I came to New York in 2002 I was working as a journalist. Ten years later, art gradually began coming back into my life. I started creating art more and showing it. Since 2019, I’ve been completely focusing on art.

2.What does your work aim to say?

After taking a detour and many different experiences, I decided to live art. During that detour I was striving rather than having fun because I grew up seeing adults who were living with jobs they didn’t even want to do. So I thought being an adult or a member of society meant striving.