Paint of this Planet — Duifhuisstraat 52

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, 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 created luminosity of paintings that possess a form and unique brightness that can only emerge from that specific moment.

Selected exhibitions: “About Freedom”, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2023; “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; “U-TOPOS Biennale Tirana”, The National Gallery of Art, Tirana, 2003; “A Son of Painting Masato Kobayashi”, S.M.A.K., Ghent, 2001; “A CASA DI…”, Città dellʼarte-Fondazióne Pistoletto, Biella, 2000; “Over the Edges”, S.M.A.K., Ghent, 2000; “KOBAYASHI Masato”, The Miyagi Museum of Art, 2000; “A Son of Painting”, Satani Gallery, Tokyo, 1992.

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: The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; S.M.A.K. (Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent); The Miyagi Museum of Art; Utsunomiya Museum of Art; Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Karuizawa; Iwaki City Art Museum; Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Shizuoka.