Having lived in Los Angeles, New York, London, Tokyo and Takayama, Tomokazu Matsuyama has long been interested in the dichotomy between his Japanese and American identities. Matsuyama’s hybrid works capture his personal experience navigating contemporary urban landscapes through his unique visual vocabulary, taking inspiration from traditional Japanese art, Disney animations, Western design sensibilities and colour tones, and Japanese colour schemes. His art thus attempts to find common threads between bipolar aesthetics such as Western and Eastern, ornamental and conceptual, traditional and contemporary, resulting in an alchemical explosion of different cultures.
Matsuyama has had numerous exhibitions worldwide including the Japan Society, New York; the Katzen Arts Center at American University, Washington D.C., and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. A massive 2014 painting, You Need to Come Closer, has recently been acquired by LACMA. Since 2019, Matsuyama has engaged in a series of public works, from murals in The Bowery, New York, and Beverly Hills, California, to two monumental public sculptures unveiled in Tokyo in July 2020. His most recent solo exhibition has travelled to the Long Museum’s Shanghai and Chongqing spaces, and he has an upcoming solo show at Zidoun‐Bossuyt Gallery, Luxembourg in 2022. Moreover, his market has been heating up, with his top three auction records set within the last year.
Provenance
Private Collection (acquired directly from the artist) Artsy x Wright Auction, Online, 16 December 2020, lot 26 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
signed, titled and dated ' "Kirin. ver. Black 5" Tomokazu Matsuyama [in English and Kanji] Apr. Nov. 2008-09' on the reverse acrylic on canvas 61 x 76 cm. (24 x 29 7/8 in.) Painted in 2008-2009.