Minako Ota

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Born in Japan in 1965, I was trained in traditional Japanese painting at an art university in Tokyo. After graduating with a BA, I left Japan and began studying conservation of western paintings in the UK and the US and continued working in the field for 20 years, until I started painting full time in Moscow, Russia, in 2007. Currently I am planning to start a new base in Princeton, NJ, for my artistic activities as of summer in 2017. I have had exhibitions in Japan, Russia, the US and France. For me, painting is an ever-changing life form. Through life experiences, you keep reinventing yourself and as you transform, your painting style transforms, too. Since I left my native country 30 years ago, I have submerged myself in western cultures in the US and Europe, I have become a hybrid of Japanese and westerner. My paintings are a reflection of myself. I combine western painting techniques that I learned through painting conservation and traditional Japanese motifs that I grew up with.