The Japanese artist and erstwhile gallerist Kazuyuki Takezaki died of a heart attack on Saturday, according to his Tokyo gallery, Misako and Rosen. He was 48 years old.

A well-respected figure in the Japanese art world, Takezaki was known for his atmospheric landscape paintings, and closed a solo exhibition, “Before Spring,” at 47 Canal in New York earlier this month.

Kazuyuki Takezaki, Another World (2023). Oil on canvas in artist’s frame, concrete, artificial flowers, 135.5x96cm. Courtesy of MISAKO & ROSEN, Tokyo and 47 Canal, New York.

“Kazuyuki Takezaki, or, Jiro, as he was known to his friends, was an incredibly unassuming and generous person who managed, over a period of two decades, to exert—both as an artist and curator—an inestimable influence on the contemporary art world in Japan,” Jeffrey Rosen, the co-founder of Misako and Rosen, said in email. Rosen added that “though only very recently recognized abroad, his imprint is evident to anyone familiar with contemporary Japanese artistic practice and its relationship to a global art world.”

Born in 1976 in Kochi, Japan, Takezaki grew up close to nature. He did not pick up art until his university days, when he trained as a printmaker and began practicing drawings. He made his debut as an artist in 2000 at the Vision of Contemporary Art, a competition exhibition showcasing young artists, at the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo.

Kazuyuki Takezaki, Board / Table (2023). Oil stick on canvas, acrylic on panel
89×96.5cm. Courtesy of MISAKO & ROSEN, Tokyo and 47 Canal, New York.

Early in his career as an artist, Takezaki worked as an art dealer to make a living, according to a booklet published by the Museum of Art, Kochi, where he had a solo show titled “A Sunny Day After Rain” in 2020.

Takezaki worked for the Tokyo-based Ota Fine Arts, between 2004 and 2007 ran the space Takefloor in his apartment in the city’s Ebisu area. The following year, he partnered with Atsuko Ninagawa to form Take Ninagawa, a Tokyo gallery that has become a powerhouse, bringing Japanese contemporary art to a global audience. He left the gallery officially in 2009 to focus on his art.

“I met Takezaki in the summer of 2002,” Ninagawa said a statement. “He was kind and open, yet also possessed a deep passion and strong will for art. We quickly became close friends.”

“Pursuing a career as an artist while working at Ota Fine Arts, he had a strong belief in the role that commercial galleries could play in the art ecosystem,” Ninagawa said. “We often discussed the work of a gallery, fostering our friendship through these conversations. “It became our mission to carry the load for artists and push boundaries to make Japan a better place for art—and to bring a sense of urgency to everything we did. This was the vision with which we founded Take Ninagawa.”

Kazuyuki Takezaki, Double Negative (2023). Oil on canvas 26.5×27.5cm. Courtesy of MISAKO & ROSEN, Tokyo and 47 Canal, New York.

Returning to his artistic practice, Takezaki relocated to Kochi, and then moved to Marugame, a city in Kagawa Prefecture on the island of Shikoku that faces the Seto Inland Sea. That area had a profound influence on his current practice, according to Andrew Maerkle, who wrote that the artist believed that the land in the area “is dying.”

“Communicating a profound yet fleeting sense of place, Takezaki’s windows onto this constantly shifting environment are also reflections on time, memory, and the porous overlaps between subject and object,” Maerkle wrote.

Takezaki’s works are in the public collections of the National Museum of Art, Osaka, the Fondazione Fiera Milano, the Museum of Art Kochi, and the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Shizuoka in Japan.