Makoto Toya

Makoto Toya (b.1944), who is currently in his 70s, has been drawing since his teens. As a youngster, he would spend time drawing at home, a local pharmacy, ran by his mother and father. As he grew older, he would spend more time releasing his creative impulses. He could often be seen creating and working from dawn until late into the night. He states that he feels something akin to a ‘high’ as he continues to draw. This of course doesn't last forever, thus he feels the urge to continue drawing until he reaches that state of eurphoria again.

Toya’s works are often giant scrolls up to 19 metres in length, drawn on Japanese paper traditionally used to dress sliding partition doors. Including works in progress, he has a running total of 61 scrolls. They feature men, women, Buddhist iconography, fantastical creatures, the sun and moon, mountains, greenery and other representations of nature. He does not have a set composition or image in mind before he commences to work on a piece. He just lets the expression flow forth at that very moment. One could consider his creativity as spontaneous.

“It would be boring to work according to a plan,” he says. Toya continues to explore parts of his imagination he has yet to meet on paper.

2019 Outsider Art Fair (with Jennifer Lauren Gallery), Hotel Drouot, Paris
2018, Art Brut Japonais II, Halle Saint Pierre, Paris