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List of Works
Masato KOBAYASHI
Works and Info Library
Masato KOBAYASHI Works and Info
"Portrait of the Artist — Exhibition Celebrating the Publication of MK" Installation view
ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2024
"Portrait of the Artist — Exhibition Celebrating the Publication of MK" Installation view
ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2024
"FAMILY/Family of this Planet" Installation view
rin art association, Gunma, 2024
Photo by Shinya Kigure
Artist
2023, oil, canvas, wood, 236x430x92cm [17251]
"About Freedom" ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2023
A Model of This Planet (Cowgirl Taking Off Her Gloves)
2023, oil, canvas, wood, 200x143x60cm [17252]
"About Freedom" ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2023
Unnamed #66
2019, oil, canvas, wood, 190x300x50cm [14411]
"About Freedom" ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2023
Portrait of the artist
2019, oil, canvas, wood, 278x288x16cm [14096]
"WHO WILL YOU SHOW YOUR ART TO ?" The University Art Museum Chinretsukan Gallery, Tokyo
University of the Art, Tokyo, 2023
"Family of this Planet" Installation view
ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2021
"Meiji Jingu Forest Festival of Art" Installation view
Meiji Jingu, Tokyo, 2021
"Thrice Upon A Time" Installation view
ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2016
"All Living Things" Installation view
Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Shizuoka, 2016
Unnamed #56
2016, oil, canvas, wooden frame, 230x380x60cm [12466]
"Thrice Upon A Time" ShugoArts, Tokyo 2016
"Nameless Horse" Installation view
ShugoArts Kiyosumi, Tokyo, 2014
To the planet #2
2009, oil, acrylic, canvas, wood, 185x262x30cm
"ART TODAY 2012 Explanatory Paintings and Masato Kobayashi" Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Nagano, 2012
"Mediations Biennale" Installation view
Zamek, Poznan, 2010
"MASATO KOBAYASHI-The Paint of the Planet" Installation view
Nariwa Museum, Okayama, 2009
"MASATO KOBAYASHI-The Paint of the Planet" Installation view
Nariwa Museum, Okayama, 2009
"Touching the Cosmos" Installation view
The Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Shizuoka 2006
"Starry Paint, stars of outer space by pure painting" Installation view
Tensta Konsthall, Spanga, 2004
Unnamed 2004 #2
2004, oil, coloser, canvas, wooden frame, 82x124cm [05241]
Unnamed 2003 (#3)
2003, oil, canvas, wooden frame, 173x300x40cm [05239]
Unnamed #25
2002, oil, canvas, wooden frame, 205x230x60cm [04419]
"Paintings in Situ" RICE GALLERY by G2, Tokyo, 2002
Unnamed #27
2002, oil, canvas, wooden frame [05044]
Unnamed #18
2000, oil, canvas, wooden frame, 250x330x250cm [04197]
"Gelijk het leven is" the Vlaamse Opera Gent, Gent, 2003
Unnamed #20
2000, oil, canvas, wooden frame, 310x500x130cm [04128]
"Epifanie-Actuele Kunst en Religie" Abdij van het Park, Heverlee 2000
Unnamed #16
1998-2000, oil, canvas, wooden frame, 270x320x300cm
"A Son of Painting Masato Kobayashi" S.M.A.K., Ghent 2001
Unnamed #15
1999, oil, canvas, wooden frame, 680x300x230cm [04125]
"Watou Po ziezomer 1999: Serendipiteit" Douvie hoeve, Watou 1999
Unnamed #7
1997, oil, canvas, wooden frame, 252x230x80cm [03404]
"de Rode Poort / The Red Gate" Installation view
Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent, 1996
Unnamed #2
1996, oil, canvas, 200x300cm [02653]
No Title (Artist's Life)
1996, oil, canvas, 200x400cm [02193]
A Painting
1993, oil, canvas, 198x262.5cm [15242]
son of painting
1992, oil, canvas, wood, 162.3x197.5cm [00462]
Painting=Sky
1985-1986, oil, canvas, 195x291cm [15196]
Angel=Painting
1984, charcoal, chalk, paint, canvas, 130x162cm [04107]
- overview
- Masato Kobayashi was born in Tokyo in 1957. He was the Japanese representative of the 1996 São Paulo Bienniale. In 1997, invited by Jan Hoet, he traveled to Europe, and continued to create works in various locations while based in Ghent, Belgium. Kobayashi returned to Japan in 2006 and began working based in Tomonoura, Fukuyama City, Hiroshima. He was also a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts from 2017 to 2023. He has developed a unique technique of applying color by rubbing it into the canvas while supporting the fabric with one hand, simultaneously stretching it over the wooden frame to bring the painting to life and "aiming for a painting that does not lose its essence by merely existing." Kobayashi has prolifically produced paintings that possess a form and unique brightness that can only emerge from that specific situation.
Selected solo exhibitions
"About Freedom", ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2023; "Family of this Planet", ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2021; "Artist and the Model", ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2019; "ART TODAY 2012", Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Nagano, 2012; "MASATO KOBAYASHI – The Paint of the Planet", Nariwa Museum, Okayama, 2009; "Starry Paint, stars of outer space by pure painting", Tensta Konsthall, Spanga, Sweden, 2004; "A Son of Painting Masato Kobayashi", S.M.A.K., Ghent, 2001; "KOBAYASHI Masato", The Miyagi Museum of Art, 2000.
Publications
Masato Kobayashi MK, HeHe, 2024; The autobiographical novel trilogy, Paint of this Planet—Under the tree at Hitotsubashi University, ART DIVER, 2018; Paint of this Planet—Duifhuisstraat 52, ART DIVER, 2020
Selected Public Collections
Iwaki City Art Museum (Iwaki, Japan). The Miyagi Museum of Art (Sendai, Japan). The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan). The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan). Utsunomiya Museum of Art (Utsunomiya, Japan). S.M.A.K. The Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Ghent, Belgium). The Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum (Shizuoka, Japan) - cv
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Masato KOBAYASHI
Portrait of the Artist — Exhibition Celebrating the Publication of MK
2024.12.7 Sat - 2025.2.1 Sat
Masato KOBAYASHI
About Freedom
2023.9.22 Fri - 11.5 Sun
Atsushi YAMAMOTO, Masaya CHIBA, Masato KOBAYASHI
Atsushi Yamamoto “Video Hut” / ShugoArts Show
2023.7.29 Sat - 9.9 Sat
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Description of Atsushi YAMAMOTO's works
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Atsushi YAMAMOTO
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Masaya CHIBA
Works and Info
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Masato KOBAYASHI
Works and Info
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Masato KOBAYASHI
“Family of this Planet” Installation movie, 2021, ShugoArts
2021.9.10 Fri - 10.16 Sat
Masato KOBAYASHI
Works and info
Library
Masato KOBAYASHI
Family of this Planet
2021.9.10 Fri - 10.16 Sat
List of works
Installation view
Installation movie
Press Release PDF
Masato KOBAYASHI
Works and Info
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Masato KOBAYASHI
Paint of this Planet
ShugoArts Online Show
2021.2.20 Sat
Paint of this Planet — Duifhuisstraat 52, the second volume of the autobiographical novel trilogy written by Masato Kobayashi, was published in October, 2020. In the first volume of the trilogy, released in 2018, Masato Kobayashi's fateful encounter with "Sensei" (a high school teacher who later became Kobayashi's muse/spring of inspiration) leads him into the world of painting in this inspirational story during which the artist matures through his painting. In the second volume, the author leaves his studio in Japan and embarks on a dazzling pictorial adventure. The year is 1996, and in this volume, considered a masterpiece, the author’s youth is illustrated as he travels around the international art scene and establishes his original painting style in which he is stretching canvas and painting simultaneously.
On this occasion, ShugoArts presents a part of Kobayashi's theory of painting from the novel, as well as a special movie of his large-scale works Unnamed #6 and Unnamed #10, which were created in Ghent in 1998 but many have not had a chance to see them in Japan.
Special Movie [duration 5:18]
Masato KOBAYASHI
Garden of Life: Eight Contemporary Artists Venture into Nature
Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum
2020.10.17 Sat - 2021.1.12 Tue
Masato KOBAYASHI
Works and bio
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Masato KOBAYASHI
“From here to beyond” Onomichi City Museum of Art
2019.9.7 Sat - 10.27 Sun
Onomichi City Museum of Art >>
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Masato KOBAYASHI
MOT Collection Part2 : Pleased to meet you. MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART TOKYO
2019.7.20 Sat - 10.20 Sun
Masato KOBAYASHI
Artist and the Model Opening TalkMasato KOBAYASHI × Kaz Oshiro
2019.6.1 Sat
Masato KOBAYASHI
Artist and the Model
2019.6.1 Sat - 7.6 Sat
Installation View >>
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Masato KOBAYASHI
CV >>
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Masaya CHIBA, Masato KOBAYASHI, LEE Kit, Atsushi YAMAMOTO
How to live #2 at Roppongi
2018.5.25 Fri - 6.23 Sat
Curation：Masaya CHIBA
Text：Jitsuzo TAKEDA
＜Opening Party with four artists＞
May 25 fri, from 6pm to 9pm
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List of Works>>
Installation view >>
Text by Takeda Jitsuzo>>
Masato KOBAYASHI
participate: Atsuhiko Misawa’s Animal House: House of Enigmas The Shoto Museum of Art
2017.10.7 Sat - 11.26 Sun
10 a.m. to 6 p.m., 8 p.m. on Fridays
(Admission until 30 minutes before closing time)
Closed
Tuesday, October 10; Monday, October 16; Monday, October 23; Monday, October 30; Monday, November 6; Monday, November 13; Monday, November 20
The Shoto Museum of Art website >>
Masato KOBAYASHI>>
Masato KOBAYASHI
Interview in his Tomonoura studio. 2016.08.11
Masato KOBAYASHI
Thrice Upon A Time Talk Show Masato KOBAYASHI + Jun AOKI Moderator : Kenjiro HOSAKA
2016.10.21 Fri
Masato KOBAYASHI
Thrice Upon A Time
2016.10.21 Fri - 12.4 Sun
Thrice Upon a Time
Beautiful light fills us with visceral pleasure, but something that looks like shit can also give us pleasure.
'Cause as we all know, beauty isn't just about the external qualities of a thing or a person. A lot of times the fact that a certain quality is contained in something or someone that looks like shit makes it even more beautiful. That goes for Duchamp's urinal, Warhol, van Gogh, Caravaggio, and Murakami. Because art isn't about something being better or worse.
That's why there's such a fine line. My utopia is always right there next to the border. Bad paintings are made by outlaws! I think of the paintings in Love, More Awful! But More Beautiful, Because Painting Is All for Love as a family of the planet. Like a family, they live together in a jumble – they're hanging on the wall, they're resting on the floor, there are angels, skies, apples, nudes, and abstract paintings…fragments of stars…family…it's a family of paintings! It's a family of this planet on the border of beauty and shit. And there are some horses out there on the plain. Laughter.
Once upon a time, twice upon a time, thrice upon a time… there was a cowboy and a cowgirl.
Kobayashi Masato,
Tomonoura Studio, August 2016
Masato KOBAYASHI, Leiko IKEMURA
participate: All Living Things Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum
2016.7.24 Sun - 11.29 Tue
Masato KOBAYASHI, Private: Takeshi MAKISHIMA, Hiroshi SUGITO,
TABLE OF THREE
2016.6.26 Sun - 8.7 Sun