Matsuyama dismantles the rigid cultural parameters that he felt inhibited by growing up between Japan and America. His bright, complex images merge Eastern and Western art histories, from Pop Art, graffiti and Manga, to the Edo period, and the Kano School of Painting. Matsuyama’s canvases are rarely rectangular. Instead, they take on irregular shapes that often suggest the outline of an ancient Japanese scroll. The figures in his paintings have expressionless faces, and yet are surrounded by comforting symbols of the home like books and foliage. This combination of the familiar and the strange...
Bio
Tomokazu Matsuyama was born in 1976 in Japan and is now based in Brooklyn, New York.
Studio
A New Yorker of more than two decades, Matsuyama cites the city's rich amalgam of cultures, values and visual codes as his reason for staying.
Did you know?
He used to be a professional snowboarder, which he compares to art as both pursuits present the opportunity to express himself.