Kenji Hirata

Kenji Hirata is a New York based painter from Nagasaki, Japan. In his paintings, he incorporates water, fire, metal, wood, and soil, fusing a complex narrative out of the five elements. Hirata moves confidently between compositions of layered density and vast areas of open fields and clean forms. In his words, his work "attempts to reveal something deep within the spirit of things." He is guided by the Buddhist idea that emptiness is everything eternal. He says his work engages in the world and attempts to reveal something deep within the spirit of things.

Hirata is an artist who creates work in an impressive variety of situations, from huge colourful public murals, to more personal paintings, from animated works for film to illustrations for books. Both his solo and collaborative works have demonstrated Hirata to be a well respected, innovative, and important member of the New York art and film communities including the Barnstormers.

The Barnstormers group came together after an encounter in Cameron, North Carolina, USA., in 1999 where they painted houses, tractors and miscellaneous agricultural equipment. Although, the artistic expressions they turn to are varied, this group experience gave them a taste for murals of great scale, which they continue to create.

Hirata has created large scale murals in public spaces in New York, Miami and Tokyo.