Soka Art Taipei has invited contemporary artist Mitsuhiro Ikeda to Taipei for his latest solo exhibition, "Portrait of Place." The exhibition will be held for a total of five weeks from the dates of 10/31 ~ 12/06. Mitsuhiro Ikeda received his master's degree from the Musashino Art University's Graduate School of Art and Design. During his time there, he was awarded the silver prize at the Ueno Mori Art Museum VOCA Exhibition, and won the superior award in the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art's New Art Competition. Aside from receiving awards, his works have also been widely collected, with the UBS Art Bank Collection receiving the highest acclaim. UBS Art Bank has been named "The World's Best Art Bank" by Euromoney. In addition, UBS Art Bank has also been a longstanding supporter and partner of several world-class cultural arts institutions and shows (e.g. Art Basel, Guggenheim Museum). Mitsuhiro Ikeda's works chosen for the UBS Art Bank Collection were additionally exhibited at this year's UBS Art Collection Exhibition in Milan.

Mitsuhiro Ikeda paintings evoke a sense of calm reflection, exploring the space between reality and imagination. Since his time as a student, he has received a large amount of international recognition from well-known arts instututions due to his unique painting style, and is one of the most closely watched up-and-coming contemporary Japanese artists. Although "Portrait of Place" will be Mitsuhiro Ikeda's first solo exhibition held in Taiwan, his work had already been exhibited at the 2014 Art Taipei, and received a large amount of recognition and acclaim during that time by both art collectors and critics.

The new works in the "Portrait of Place" series were inspired by his experiences during his self-imposed exile to the heart of Europe. Wandering between different countries, Mitsuhiro Ikeda at last decided to use the tools most familiar to him, to use a series of paintings to piece together his experiences to tell a story as fragments of a diary do. This exhibition will feature 13 new pieces of work from 2014-2015, and 8 rare watercolors, allowing the audience to catch a glimpse of his most recent style.

According to Mitsuhiro Ikeda, "Through experiences in the outside world, these works express the relationship between the inner conscious and the real world, and the world of imagination." It is under this type of creative concept that Mitsuhiro Ikeda's works from his travels for this time's exhibition extend from. He takes a piece of canvas within a wooden frame and creates with it the image of a mirror, using painting as a form of writing to record each scene of his journey in "Portrait of Place." Mitsuhiro Ikeda uses strokes of the paint brush to sketch the image of a cold desolate place, filled with old abandoned buildings and scrap wood scattered about. The barren scenery he paints of these places from different corners of Europe, serve to express how art is an extension of our everday lives. Those wishing to feast upon these pieces of art created by Mitsuhiro Ikeda should seize this opportunity to attend Ikeda's first solo exhibition in Taiwan, "Portrait of Place."