Tokyo Gallery + BTAP (Beijing) is holding a solo exhibition by Hiroyuki Matsuura entitled ‘Super Acrylic Skin - Photon - Imaginary Temperature’ starting November 8 (Sun). This is Matsuura’s first solo show in mainland China, showcasing a large-scale installation that makes use of BTAP’s generous exhibition space to exhibit new works made out of light boxes and other materials.

Matsuura was born in 1964 in Tokyo. He joined Task Force Ltd. in 1984 as a graphic designer for packaging, logos and book bindings. Since 1999, he has been creating ‘character illustration’ works that combine poster, package and skateboard design. His solo exhibition‘Super Acrylic Skin’ held at Tokyo Gallery in 2005 marked his career shift to being an artist, and Matsuura has since been expanding his practice to work in a variety of formats – painting, sculpture and limited-edition multiples - both in Japan and abroad. An artist whose international reputation has been growing year by year, Matsuura was most recently invited to hold a solo exhibition this year at Eslite Gallery in Taiwan.

In contemporary society, these characters have become commonplace, with people consuming them on a daily basis. For Matsuura, who grew up in such an environment and has also worked as a creator of these characters, these boys and girls were an extremely familiar and intimate presence even though they existed in an entirely fictional world. The characters in Matsuura’s work with their ‘super acrylic skin’ possess an interior dimension that is invisible to the outsider, existing only within the surface of the painting. They transcend the world of anthropomorphic images, appearing before our eyes by assuming an existence that is equivalent to our own.

For this ‘Super Acrylic Skin - Photon’ exhibition, Matsuura has switched his choice of support from canvas to LED light box, turning his characters into massive light sources that have materialized in the space of the gallery. The body heat emanating from these imaginary characters has been transformed into photon particles that scatter about, stimulating our senses. Filled with photons, the exhibition space will resonate with an otherworldly pulsation that radiates from the body heat of these fictional characters.

Comments from the artist

“Instead of the next-generation human figures (characters) that I normally portray using acrylic on canvas, for this exhibition I have replaced these materials with LEDs - a smart, ecologically-conscious light source for the future that is free of ultra-violet and infra-red rays, and which produces less heat radiation. In addition, I also attempted to express the “sacred” nature of these qualities through a medium that is both “digital” and “cool” by depicting an ideal human race (of characters) that ought to inherit a future planet Earth. The light that they give off can be an intense, luminous form of illumination that radiates from a sense of joy or pleasure, or a faint trace of light that emerges from dark feelings of anger or sadness. I hope viewers will able to sense the “imaginary temperature” of the various photons and light particles that emanate from these characters.”

(Matsuura Hiroyuki, September, 2009)

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この度、東京画廊+BTAP（北京）では、11月8日（日）より松浦浩之個展「SUPER ACRYLIC SCKIN - PHOTON - Imaginary Temperature」を開催いたします。作家にとって中国本土での初の個展となる本展では、ライトボックスなどを使った新作を発表し、BTAPの広い展示スペースを利用した大規模なインスタレーションを展開いたします。

松浦の作品は、多彩なキャラクターが次々と登場し、画面一杯にクローズアップした大胆な構図で捉えらます。それぞれのキャラクターには、性別、表情、性格が与えられていますが、彼らはマンガのように一つの物語世界に縛られることなく、自立性を持った存在となって、画面越しの私たちに語りかけてくるのです。

現代社会では、キャラクターが当たり前のように流通し、人々はそれらを日常的に消費しています。このような環境下で育ち、またキャラクターを創り出すことを仕事としてきた松浦にとって、彼・彼女たちは、架空世界に存在しながらも、極めて身近な存在であったと言います。アクリルの肌「Super Acrylic Skin」を持つ松浦作品のキャラクターたちは、外（他者）からは見ることのできない内面を有して画面内に存在し、擬人化されたイメージという域を超えて、私たちと対等な存在となって現前するのです。

本展『Super Acrylic Skin - Photon - Imaginary Temperature』では、キャンバスからLEDライトボックスへと支持体を代えて作品を制作します。松浦の創り出すキャラクターが巨大な光源となって空間に立ち現われるのです。架空のものであり存在しない彼らの体温は、光子（photon）という粒子となって散らばり、私たちの感覚へと届けられます。光子で満たされた展示空間は、彼らの架空の体温を帯びて異次元の鼓動を始めるのです。皆様のご来廊を心よりお待ち申し上げております。

作家コメント

「今回の『Super Acrylic Skin - Photon - Imaginary Temperature』は、「次世代の人類（＝キャラクター）」の存在を、通常のアクリル・オン・キャンバスというマテリアルから、”LED”という、紫外線や赤外線を含むことなく熱照射を抑えた、スマートでエコロジーな次世代光源に置き換え、さらにその資質を『デジタル』で『クール』で『神聖』なものと捉え、次世代の地球を担うべき理想の人類（＝キャラクター）に置き換えて表現したものです。彼らの放つ「光」は、喜びや楽しさから発する強く輝く光源であったり、怒りや悲しみという暗闇から生まれるかすかな灯火であったりもするのです。さまざまな「光という粒子―photon」を放つ彼らの「架空の体温-Imaginary temperature」を感じてもらえたらと思っています。」

2009年9月5日　松浦浩之