Tomokazu Matsuyama: Liberation Back Home: SCAD Museum of Art

Displaying works both within and on the façade of the SCAD Museum of Art, Tomokazu Matsuyama presents large-scale paintings and sculpture that blur distinctions between interiority and exteriority, Eastern and Western, and past and present. A first-generation Japanese American, the artist was born in Japan, moved to Southern California with his family at age eight, and has spent more than two decades in New York, channeling these experiences of cultural change and learning into his work. Matsuyama depicts figures within intricate domestic spaces, drawing from a broad visual vocabulary ranging from the refined tradition of Nihonga painting to contemporary Japanese aesthetics, and blending references to American editorial photography, the bold, graphic sensibilities found in West Coast subcultures, and icons of Eastern and Western art histories.

 

These works are meticulously constructed through a mix of hand-drawn and digital techniques, combining patterns and symbols to reflect shifting notions of identity and meaning in a globalized world. Inspired by daily life in cities, each painting synthesizes a barrage of visual information, treating what is traditionally considered high or low culture with equal attention and care. The exhibition includes works from First Last, a series influenced by the artist’s religious upbringing that incorporates elements from Western art historical depictions of Biblical scenes. Collectively, these works explore how stories and the images they conjure have multiplied over centuries and across communities, revealing the myriad ways context shapes perspectives of one’s self and society.