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)
Born in Niigata, Japan in 1964. Maruyama currently lives and works in Tokyo. He has become one of the most important painters in Japan since the 1990s. The artist incorporates the stain technique, a painting technique using cotton cloths soaked with water and acrylics, in order to depict his motifs which are so soft that they melt with time and place. His paintings are figurative yet abstract, ushering the viewers to a plateau where there is no boundary between a subject and an object; in other words, the viewers become part of his paintings. Maruyama’s painting practice is bolstered by his diligent, rational and sincere research and practice of “the possibility of the spaces that exist only inside paintings.” He has been a Professor in the Painting Department at the Musashino Art University since 2000. Maruyama received The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technologyʼs Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists in 2008.
Selected exhibitions: puddle, Keteleer Gallery, Antwerp, 2025; NO DATE, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2025; HIRAKU Project Vol.14 Naofumi Maruyama Kicking the Water: Sengokuhara, Pola Museum of Art, Kanagawa, 2023; Kicking the Water, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2022; Lascaux and Weather, ShugoArts,Tokyo, 2018; FLOWING, Wooson Gallery, Daegu, 2017; GROUND2: Talking About Paintings, Talking About Seeing, Musashino Art University Museum & Library, Tokyo, 2016; Niigata Creations ‒ Museum in Motion, Niigata City Art Museum, Niigata, 2014; Floating Boat, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, 2011; Transparent Footsteps, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2010; the front in the back, Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2008; Portrait Session, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, 2007; The Elegance of Silence: Contemporary Art from East Asia, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2005; HAPPINESS: A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR ART + LIFE, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2003; Taipei Biennial: Great Theatre of the World, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2002; MOT Annual 1999: Modest Radicalism, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 1999; 8th Triennale-India, Lalit Kala Akademi, National Academy of Art, New Delhi, 1994; Solo at Satani Gallery Tokyo, 1992
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.
Born in 1989 in Venice, Italy, Anju Michele currently lives in Kyoto, Japan. Using silver and gold evaporated aluminum paper, a material used in Nishijin textiles, as a support, he creates paintings that embody the changing light. Expressed in light and organic forms that are difficult to describe, his practice “begins with the gesture,” showing us that there is a world that is different from the reality we usually see. And Anju’s body, which makes it difficult for him to hear outside sounds, fosters a rich sensory experience and reveals free and fearless brushwork.
Selected exhibitions: Circular Skies, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2024; Imaginarium, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2020; VOCA The Vision of Contemporary Art 2020, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, 2020; Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama Museum of Art , Kanagawa, 2014; About Freedom, TRAUMARIS, Tokyo, 2011; Kagemi of love, HIGURE 17-15cas, Tokyo, 2009; Infanzia, Cube gallery, Venice, 2005
Born in Kyoto, Japan in 1962. Mishima moved to Venice in 1989. Having established a residence in Kyoto in 2011, she lives and works between the two cities. Collaborating with glassmiths on Murano Island, Italy, the artist takes advantage of the translucency and viscosity of Venetian glass in order to create clear glass sculptures, which bear the contours of light while becoming parts of the environments. Since Mishima’s sculptures visualize the energy of the exhibited spaces by absorbing the surrounding air and light, they have received high praise as public artworks as well. Currently the artist is expanding her practice beyond fine art through collaborating with different creative industries such as architecture, fashion and design. Solo exhibition “RITSUE MISHIMA – GLASS WORKS” at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice in 2022, awarded the Fondazione di Venezia award for the best project in the Venice section of The Italian Glass Weeks. The artist also received BVLGARI AVRORA AWARDS 2022.
Selected solo exhibitions: Forms of Light, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2023; RITSUE MISHIMA ‒ GLASS WORKS, Gallerie dellʼAccademia, Venice, 2022; HALL OF LIGHT, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2019-2020; In Grimani. Ritsue Mishima Glass Works, Museum of Palazzo Grimani, Venice, 2013; As it should be, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, 2011; Frozen garden / Fruits of fire, Museum Boijmans, Rotterdam, 2010. Selected group exhibtions: Wonderment Noe Aoki / Ritsue Mishima, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo, 2024; Asia Corridor Contemporary Art Exhibition, Culture City of East Asia 2017 Kyoto, Nijo Castle, Kyoto, 2017; Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa, 2014; the 53rd International Art Exhibition: Venice Biennale, Venice Pavilion, Venice, 2009
Born in Tokyo in 1993, Spilliaert relocated in 2009 to Belgium. After completing her graduate studies at LUCA School of Arts in Ghent, she has continued her artistic practice there. Spilliaert weaves personal experiences, historical perspectives, and elements of nature into her work, presenting them through a wide range of media — from drawings, including a seven-year visual diary, to murals, ceramics, and installations. Underlying her practice is a keen interest in the role of symbols in cultural formation and the ways they reveal connections between nature and the human body. Her reflections on culture and history also bring a distinctive character to her public space projects, where she crafts new narratives. Spilliaert creates a distinctive, and at times humorous, worldview that transcends various boundaries and resonates with collective consciousness and ancestral roots.
Selected exhibitions: “My Sister is Pregnant”, Kunsthal Gent, Ghent, 2024; “Stambomen”, Keteleer Gallery, Antwerp, 2024; “Hairy Tale”, Lichtekooi Artspace, Antwerp, 2023; “Clara Sekirara”, Contemporary Art Foundation, Tokyo, 2022; “Publiek Park”, Friends of S.M.A.K., Ghent, 2021.
Selected Public Collections: Mu.Zee (Ostend, Belgium), the National Bank of Belgium (Brussels, Belgium).
Her permanent works include installations at Kunsthal Extra City (Antwerp) and public art commissions in the Belgian cities of Geraardsbergen, Kruibeke, and Leuven.
Awards: Prix Fintro Prijs Supporting Young Artist, Winner Visual Arts, Belgium, 2023; Contemporary Art Foundation CAF Award 2020, Grand Prize, Japan, 2020.
Atsushi Yamamoto was born in Tokyo in 1980. After graduating from the Department of Painting at Tama Art University, he moved to Berlin in 2003 and started creating video works. In 2018, he stayed in Hue, Vietnam as a part of The Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists organized by The Agency for Cultural Affairs. Working as an office worker during the week and filming on his days off, he has produced more than 300 video works. His diverse works include social fiction, personal documentaries, and comedic experimental videos that question the meaning and meaninglessness of life.
Selected exhibitions: “A Solitary Emotion”, Koganecho Bazaar 2024, Yokohama(2024); “A yesterday’s temple”, Art Center Ongoing, Tokyo(2024); “MY HOME IS NOT YOUR HOME”, ShugoArts, Tokyo (2022); “DOMANI: The Art of Tomorrow” Exhibition 2021, The National Art Center, Tokyo(2021); “MAM Screen 007: Yamamoto Atsushi”, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2017-18); Video Art Programs [A Window to the World] The 24th Program, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan(2011).