Exhibited:
Artist Project #2.08 Matsudaira Rina Code and Mode, 2025, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
Matsudaira was born in 1989 in Hyogo, and she is currently based in Kyoto. Drawing on the techniques and materials cultivated within the field of Nihonga (Japanese-style painting), Matsudaira creates figurative works centered on the theme of “imagining the other.” Operating on the premise that complete understanding between people is ultimately unattainable, the artist turns her gaze toward the voiceless others hidden within history, folklore, and records. Through compositions in which multiple timelines and perspectives intersect, she explores the potential for encounters and dialogue within painting. While critiquing the conventions of painting—including modern Nihonga and Western linear perspective—from within, Matsudaira reexamines the power and ethics inherent in the very act of painting by incorporating the spatiality and temporality of Sansui (traditional East Asian landscape painting) and calligraphy. Matsudaira’s practice is not merely an act of preserving tradition, but a quiet attempt to dismantle and renew the institutional framework of Nihonga as a medium.
Selected solo exhibitions: Artist Project #2.08 Matsudaira Rina Code and Mode, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, 2025; Angels, Wreaths, Centaurs, Takashimaya Stores, Kyoto, Yokohama, Tokyo, 2024; αM project 2023‒2024. Redevelopment of Development Vol. 4 Rina Matsudaira: Three Types of Drawing Instruction Books, the Desire of a Ten-Year-Old, gallery αM, Tokyo, 2024; BANN, KAHO GALLERY, Kyoto, 2023; Habit of Reproduction, ROHM Theatre Kyoto, Kyoto, 2020. Selected group exhibitions: Idemitsu Art Award Artist Selection, The National Art Center, Tokyo, 2024; The “Habitats” of Modern Japanese Paintings, Sen-Oku Hakukokan Museum Tokyo, 2023; Suppose it as your home (reaching), TALION GALLERY, Tokyo, 2022; NIJL Arts Initiative Special Exhibition: Unveiling the bundle of time – Art and translation inspired by classic literature, National Institute of Japanese Literature, Tokyo, 2021; VOCA2015, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, 2025. Public collections: Takayama City, Gifu, Japan; Kyoto city KYOCERA Museum of Art, Japan.