FROM 4 FEBRUARY 2022
A visit to Nao Matsunaga's studio
For the last 18 months Nao Matsunaga has been focused on painting, returning to the canvas time after time and creating multiple layers of acrylic until he is satisfied with the outcome. This in turn has informed his recent ceramic sculptures where he applies vibrant glazes to his forms and allows gravity to have its way. He has enjoyed exploring this interconnectivity between his painting and ceramic practice - how one technique echoes in the other.
Working intuitively with his materials and adopting a process where something unknown or unexpected is actively welcomed adds a liberated intensity to Matsunaga’s artworks. This contrasts with the time-consuming nature of his personal approach and rigorous mark making. The restrained yet haphazard elements of his work ensure each piece is firmly established within the realms of the everyday and the extraordinary.
Available work by the artist is detailed here and on his artist profile page.
Photography by Paul Iché
Open cave (2021)
glazed ceramic
37 x 43 x 30 cm
Spiral Feeling (2021)
glazed ceramic
58 x 38 x 26 cm
Another Day Maybe, Everyday Walker and Someday Soon (all 2021)
all acrylic and pencil on linen
all 61 x 61 x 2 cm
Rock the Motion 1, 2 (2021)
acrylic on canvas
145 x 92 cm
Wonderings (2021)
acrylic and pencil on canvas
160 x 160 x 5 cm
I Dream in Colour 1 (Red), 2 (Brown), 3 (Yellow) (all 2020)
all acrylic and pen on canvas
all 51.5 x 51.5 x 2 cm
Faces in Motion 1, 2, 3 (all 2021)
all acrylic on canvas
all 61 x 61 x 2 cm
Waller 1 and Waller 2 (both 2021)
both glazed ceramic, under-glaze pencil
69 x 69 x 5 cm and 62 x 68 x 6 cm
Nao Matsunaga was born in Japan and trained at the University of Brighton before completing an MA in Ceramics and Glass at the Royal College of Art. He makes strange and elusive sculpture and works on paper often inspired by ceremonial objects and spaces. He works with dualities and contradictions that include the use of clay with wood, juxtapositions of matt surface and runs of glassy glaze, and a mix of organic and geometric elements. His practice speaks of enduring human concerns and personal and collective experience.
Matsunaga has exhibited widely, and completed a six-month ceramics residency at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2014, where he is included in the public collection. Other residencies include Cove Park, Scotland in 2010, National Academy of Art, Oslo in 2015, and LaunchPad LaB, France in 2021. He was a finalist of the Jerwood Makers Open in 2012 and won the British Ceramics Biennial Award in 2013.
All photography by Paul Iché, January 2022
For more information please contact Tatjana Marsden or Siobhan Feeney
info@marsdenwoo.com
+44(0)20 7336 6396
FROM 4 FEBRUARY 2022
A visit to Nao Matsunaga's studio
For the last 18 months Nao Matsunaga has been focused on painting, returning to the canvas time after time and creating multiple layers of acrylic until he is satisfied with the outcome. This in turn has informed his recent ceramic sculptures where he applies vibrant glazes to his forms and allows gravity to have its way. He has enjoyed exploring this interconnectivity between his painting and ceramic practice - how one technique echoes in the other.
Working intuitively with his materials and adopting a process where something unknown or unexpected is actively welcomed adds a liberated intensity to Matsunaga’s artworks. This contrasts with the time-consuming nature of his personal approach and rigorous mark making. The restrained yet haphazard elements of his work ensure each piece is firmly established within the realms of the everyday and the extraordinary.
Available work by the artist is detailed here and on his artist profile page.
Photography by Paul Iché
Open cave (2021)
glazed ceramic
37 x 43 x 30 cm
Spiral Feeling (2021)
glazed ceramic
58 x 38 x 26 cm
Another Day Maybe, Everyday Walker and Someday Soon (all 2021)
all acrylic and pencil on linen
all 61 x 61 x 2 cm
Rock the Motion 1, 2 (2021)
acrylic on canvas
145 x 92 cm
Wonderings (2021)
acrylic and pencil on canvas
160 x 160 x 5 cm
I Dream in Colour 1 (Red), 2 (Brown), 3 (Yellow) (all 2020)
all acrylic and pen on canvas
all 51.5 x 51.5 x 2 cm
Faces in Motion 1, 2, 3 (all 2021)
all acrylic on canvas
all 61 x 61 x 2 cm
Waller 1 and Waller 2 (both 2021)
both glazed ceramic, under-glaze pencil
69 x 69 x 5 cm and 62 x 68 x 6 cm