Tomokazu Matsuyama Exhibit at the Arsham/Fieg Gallery

December 19, 2017

Tomokazu Matsuyama's works are a reflection of the unique bi-cultural experience of growing up between Japan and America. Described as having a bi-polar aesthetic, Matsuyama expresses a distinct global perspective through layered imagery and painting styles: the flatness of Edo period Japanese painting intertwined with the bold vigor of American abstract expressionism and the freedom of gestural painters of the post-war New York School. The artist's work is characterized by a painstakingly precise technique of layering paint to create a harmony of these seemingly contradicting styles. His work artfully merges the conceptual demands of the Western contemporary art world with the respect for materials and craft of the East. Matsuyama's work resists cultural categorization and is a metaphorical representation of what he refers to as the "Struggle of reckoning the familiar local with the familiar global." His playful appropriation of multiple cultural influences is the embodiment of contemporary global exchange and a visual manifestation of the fragmented characteristics of the 21st-century experience. For more information, please inquire here.