ARTIST SERIES 031: Toya Horiuchi Toya Horiuchi is a Japanese painter, screenprinter, and graphic designer based in Brooklyn. Toya’s most recent solo show in New York, ‘Mountain Paintings’ is a series of abstract paintings depicting his interpretations of mountains. He displayed nine large scale paintings, a wall of 8x3 small scale paintings and a sand sculpture installation. His ‘Mountain Paintings’ ground the viewer in nature while forcing them into a new reality and color story. They are brightly colored, vibrant, and textural - introducing new layers upon each glance. Toya was introduced to painting when he was about six years old in his hometown of Yokohama. When he expressed interest in the arts; his parents enrolled him into a local art class where his connection with art blossomed. His family owned a construction hardware store where they sold concrete, sand and tools. In his teens, Toya found an interest in street culture and began to teach himself graphic design. Shortly after he moved to Los Angeles to pursue and study art. After graduating school Toya moved to New York, LA was too slow paced for his taste. He moved on Christmas in 2012. He had no money, no career, no friends or family. All he had was his suitcase. Upon arriving in New York he sought out the studio of his favorite artist, Eric Elms, where he showed up uninvited. By chance Elms was preparing for a solo show in Tokyo and allowed Toya to assist him. This introduced Toya to his artistic practice and was a big turning point in his career. This showed Toya he was in the right place to pursue his dreams. [READ FULL SEGMENT ON MY WEBSITE]