Emerging Japanese artist Tohru Matsushita is best known for his street art style “cracks paintings”. Red Elation Gallery is delighted to present One million years - his debut solo exhibition in Hong Kong and features a selection of his recent works. “I think that one million years are enough for nature to clean up all man made things on earth. Destroying all man made things will be the most awful and yet the most beautiful act of nature”, says Matsushita. His works establish a dialogue between nature, human creations and contemporary culture. The cracks link his works and show the fragility of humanity and the effects of the passage of time.
Matsushita’s technique
Different from traditional methods of painting, Matsushita applies chemical paints to the surfaces of aluminium panel, canvas and even a car bonnet, and plays with the accidental cracking effects. He creates an image by combining a variety of events that occur on the painted surface, including painting over the layers, scraping off the paint layers, and letting the cracks spread, producing different planes and volumes for the works.
Matsushita’s concept
Asian “animism” prominently inspires the concept of his paintings. He follows the Japanese traditional way of respecting natural phenomenon. At the same time, he tries to produce paintings representing visual expression, taking his cue from street art culture that has influenced him from a young age in Japan and the United States. Spray and stencil is one particular street art skill, which is also used in Japanese traditional paintings that he uses frequently in his paintings.
Featured works
In Magic Hour, the artist sprays the canvas on a turning roundtable - the same way as making ceramics. Matsushita says, “I've made this work by spraying on canvas, which is kept turning on the turntable. This is the same way as making pottery bowls with clay on the wheel, so the concept of this work is translating a pottery bowl to painting. “Enso”, the circle painted in Zen calligraphy, also inspires it. “Enso” is one of the Japanese mandala, which visualises the Buddhist enlightened mind.”
Kelen Bonnet is painted on a car bonnet, which is an icon of mass production. Matsushita puts these together to contrast and compare the variability of art and the repetitiveness of machines.
Cars on Fire depicts a digital image of a car accident from the Internet, which has been retouched in Photoshop by adding stencils and effects. The original image was manipulated and harmonized with identical textures of cracking, which shows the artist’s spontaneous emotions towards the subject matter.
Artist Biography
Tohru Matsushita was born in Kanagawa, Japan in 1984. He was raised near Yokohama and spent his teenage years in the United States. He completed the Master Course in Inter Media Art at Tokyo National University of Arts in 2010. He participated in the Koshiki Art Project and won the Shigeo Goto Award. Matsushita’s paintings have been widely exhibited around Japan: solo exhibition - ”Kelen”, island MEDIUM, Tokyo (2011), and selected group exhibitions - “Welcome Art Office” (2011) and “TOKYO ART FRONT” (2011). He currently lives and works in Tokyo.
