MIZU Tetsuo was born on 1944 in Tokyo. In 1967, he encountered the works of Italian Jewish painter and sculptor, Amedeo Modigliani and was deeply inspired by him. Mizu started drawing and enrolled into Musashino Art Academy in 1971. After graduation, he made an entry in Exhibition of the Free Art Association and became a member. In the same year (1975), Mizu held his first private exhibition in Tokyo. Since 1977, he has annually produced original anthology of poem and pictures and in 1983 he was awarded the Free Art Prize. Mizu lived and worked in Rome and Anzio, Italy from 1983 to 1988. During a visit to the Picasso Room at the Basel Art Museum in Switzerland, he received inspiration and reconfirmed his own technique of painting. Mize was invited to the First Representational Art Concours in Anzio and received the Special Prize in 1987. In the same year, he presented a series of oil paintings free from the influence of past artist to Europe and receive a commission from the Church of St. Anne in Lavinio (Rome) to create stained glass works. In July 1988, Mizu signed an exclusive sales contract in Europe and the U.S with Mr. J.P Schneider (Lichtenstein) and in September, Geijutsushibunsha Pushlishing Co. published Mizu’s Serenade, an anthology of poems and pictures, and Melody of Love, a collection of prints book. In May to July of 1989, the artist stayed and worked in Palma de Mallorca (Spain) and had an Exhibition of Chagall, Dali, Picasso, Melois and Mizu at B.I.A.F Art Inter AG in Barcelona, Spain in September.
Mizu’s unorganized line creates irregular shapes, some of his signature works consists of ‘international maritime signal flags in exquisite tactile textures. His works usually consist of his expressive usage of blue which is often compared to Utagawa Hiroshige’s Ukiyoe painting of the Edo period (17th -18th centuries). The artist challenges, and try to fuse the representational and the abstract forms beyond finite space.
He now works in his studio located at the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan.
