Born 1956 in Tokyo, O Jun earned his master’s degree in 1982 from Tokyo University of the Arts. His first solo exhibition was held in the same year at Gallery Taimei. From 1984 to 1985, O Jun lived in Barcelona. A prolonged stay in Düsseldorf, Germany, followed from 1990-94. In 1996, he produced the lithographs “Flying Ace” and “Shusui.” Another solo exhibition was held in 2000 in Museum Haus Kasuya, Yokosuka. A show at the National Museum of Art, Osaka, followed in 2002.

Frankly, I am huge fan of O Jun. With his name difficult to correlate to a specific nationality, and his priest-like appearance, it is immediately clear the O Jun is somewhat out of the ordinary. During our “O Jun and Naoki Funakoshi” exhibition in June 2000, we felt overwhelmed by the scale of his works and the beauty of his colors. A revival of painting seemed possible again. O Jun is a self-proclaimed “youngster that arrived to late on the scene,” but before long he had turned into a veritable master in his own right.