I first met Miyasako Masaaki in 2018 in his role as the head of Tokyo University of the Art’s Institute for Knowledge and Inspiration (IKI). Even before that, I knew of his work as an artist and was looking forward to meeting him. His energy is legendary, as I was soon to find out. At our first meeting, he arrived behind the wheel of a red Saab 900, his hair carried in an Einstein-esque manner. Even through the car window—his hand waiving at my group—I could sense Miyasako’s vibrancy. That vigor and determination translated into his work at IKI, a venture devoted to cultural preservation through combining cutting-edge technology and traditional techniques that took him around the globe, from the U.S. to Uzbekistan.
Miyasako is a visionary, and I believe that his paintings are reflections of that spirit. They are dreamy yet forceful, abstract yet figurative. In the same way, following the synergy of opposites that is the core of Miyasako’s doings, his technique is meticulous and free-flowing at equal measure. When looking at Miyasako’s work, I sense an awareness of history combined with his deep roots in the present—much in the same vein as his work at IKI shaped his approach to cultural preservation. Miyasako bundles his energy and transmits it like a laser ray into whatever he touches.
