Masaaki Miyasako: Living Dreams

New York, NY – Ippodo Gallery is honored to present Masaaki Miyasako: Living Dreams the legendary painter’s premier solo exhibition in the United States. Miyasako’s work is praised for evolving the historical Nihonga painting technique urazaishiki, a traditional back-painting method invented between the Heian and Kamakura periods (794–1333). Miyasako’s pictures represent romantic visions of life, nature, and the change of seasons in East and Southeast Asia. After leading the Institute of Knowledge and Inspiration collaboration between Tokyo University of the Arts and the Japanese government for a half-decade,[i] Miyasako reclaims his mantle as the greatest and most accomplished Nihonga painter of the present.

Eight large paintings, one four-panel folding screen, and ten calligraphy and sculptures display Masaaki Miyasako’s (b.1951) transcendent sense of the invisible and unspoken dimension. Miyasako’s paintings invite you to enter the sublime and ephemeral world of tender imagination. Where dots, lines, and colors become intertwined, Miyasako embeds a certain poetic sentiment between the brush strokes. Raised in the Izumo region (present-day Shimane prefecture)—known for Japanese original mythologies and tales—Miyasako’s roots in history and culture nurtured his fascination with timelessness.

The centerpiece of the exhibition and Miyasako’s signature, “Firework ‘Aqua’/Eternal Moment” is a vivid memory of the Go-no River in his hometown in Shimane prefecture. The cast net—which fans out in perpetuity—is an auspicious symbol of luck, fortune, and prosperity.

Miyasako’s exquisite approach to the scene is imbued with veiled storytelling. The spiral, figuring as a central philosophy, is Miyasako’s method of establishing the composition; working from the center outwards, each dot gradually accumulates until the image emerges as an ensemble. Linear perspective and modeling of light with shadow, the hallmarks of classical Western painting, are of no use to Miyasako. Instead, he creates depth and beckons the eye to sink into the expanse of dots by layering three sheets of washi paper—one withered and translucent, another called momigami which is rubbed and feathered for texture, and kozo paper. Then topped with fine silk, Miyasako captures the immense beauty of the earth by applying precious minerals such as malachite and azurite to the surface with a traditional white cat-hair and martin brush.

Moving to Tokyo as a young adult, Miyasako first studied design at Tokyo University of the Arts, and then returned to the university to master Nihonga and conservation. Miyasako developed his skills by examining Japanese masterworks, such as the murals at Horyuji’s Golden Temple Wall. Attuned to the deterioration of world arts, he traveled throughout Asia, the Middle East, and South America on research missions, steadily amassing a collection of eclectic relics along the way. When Miyasako became a full professor in the department of painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, his paintings had already earned many prestigious awards and exhibited in museums and institutions across Asia and Europe.[ii]

The place where inner memories encounter the real world, the premise of Miyasako’s latest assemblage is an orchestrated illustration of dreams wrought from reality.