Taku Bannai

Taku Bannai was born in Tokyo. He graduated from the Department of Graphic Design at Tama Art University, and he works as an illustrator in Japan. The pictures take an everyday scene and give it room. Something ordinary is cut from paper and set in a wide blank, so the person looking can finish the story.

He works mainly in collage. Around the cut shapes he leaves a blank. On his own page he describes that blank as the part of the picture which lets a viewer imagine a story of their own. The feeling sits in an ordinary view, not in a crowded frame. Advertisements, book jackets, magazines, and music artwork are all made this way.

The works he names include pictures for Volkswagen, and also for Toyota, Suntory, ANA, MINI, The New Yorker, Shinchosha, and Magazine House. On the Japanese half of the same page he also names the theatre piece 『BGM』 by 劇団ロロ, pictures for the film Honey Boy, Coca-Cola's Ayataka Cafe, and the visuals for the Pocari Sweat song Blue Souls. A commission and a gallery piece share the cut edge and the open paper.

He was selected for the Society of Illustrators, and for the Gallery House Maya competition. At the Pater's Gallery Competition in 2016 he received the Suzuki Seiichi Prize. The English profile also names the Illustrators Communication Competition. He completed the MJ Illustrations course. The selections sit with the clients, and they belong to the same paper cuts.

The exhibitions carry the same blank into other rooms. In March 2017 he showed in the group Autre Je at Galerie Treize-Dix in Paris. That September, Love Potion - Ten Rooms, Three Hearts included him at the Seoul Museum. In April 2018, HB Gallery in Omotesando held his solo show tokyo. In October 2020 he had a solo show, TOKYOBAY URAYASU, at Urayasu Civic Plaza Wave 101. In January 2018, cafe gallery Quo vadis held the solo show winter days. In March 2019, Route Gallery held the solo show A windy day. In March 2016 he contributed scarf pictures to the silk exhibition at Tomioka Silk Mill. In February 2026, blackbird books showed The distance between us. Cut paper, an everyday scene, and space left open: that is the picture in the newest room and in the earlier ones.