Born 1962 in Ishikawa, Japan; has lived in Kyoto since the age of 7.
Kou Kitamura draws 'living things' as seen by his own eyes. He calls them HUMANIMAL.
They are not anthropomorphic animals. He says: "I drew them as motifs of beings I vaguely saw when I turned my eyeball over and looked around at another real world on the other side of my retina.
They are therefore 'there'. Using oil paint, he fixes the "hazy and often clouded HUMANIMAL shapes and colours" on the canvas as "truths to be depicted". The work depicts "the essence of love that flows through all living things as a common feeling", according to the artist.
Kitamura studied philosophy at university and was preparing to become a writer while working after graduation. However, he was inspired to write poetry after reading the work of a poet. For example, the following poem.
“Lose the Colour”
What is the colour of a person's heart?
You who are smiling are orange
The virtuous wish is white
The angel's compassion is gold
The time when you were a woman approaching is naughty pink.
This sorrow is blue.
Geraci is black
The time when we were two moving apart is a colour we've forgotten
In the blink of an eye, they're gone.
When the log bridge crashed
In a crevasse we can no longer cross
We waved our hands in the air
Until the very end, until the very end, we let fly the echo of love's words.
Until the thick fog of memory blindfolds us back home in the morning.
From 2010 onwards, he began to take an interest in painting and started to produce his own work.
One of the characteristics of his work is the spirited brushstrokes that weave together many layers, as if to convey the strength, depth and richness of Kitamura's feelings. Also, the various colours of the oil paints, which seem to symbolise love and the depth and richness of the world. And the created work has a high tension level that makes you feel that there is indeed an 'it'. Although we are instantly led into the painted world with a strong impact, it is not destructive, but an expression filled with nostalgia and physical familiarity. Kitamura's expression is influenced, if not directly, by Buddhist philosophy, which has long taken root in Kanazawa and Kyoto, where he was born and raised. Kitamura will continue to paint HUMANIMAL 'as a figurative expression of love'.