Takagi begins from close observation of ordinary natural phenomena but avoids turning them into straightforward landscape painting. His recent works test the point at which subject and viewer, inside and outside, begin to feel less clearly separated. The title references the philosophical idea of things being simply what they are, before interpretation intervenes.

Daichi Takagi (b. 1982, Gifu) is a Japanese painter based in Kanagawa. His work draws on both contemporary painting and Eastern philosophical ideas, especially Kitaro Nishida’s concept of “pure experience.”