Masayoshi Nojo

Masayoshi Nojo (b. 1989, Japan)  completed his MA in Japanese Paintings in 2015 from the Kyoto University of Art and Design. With his unique and complex techniques he creates a contemporary visual language in tune with established Japanese aesthetics to explore themes of memory and the passage of time.

This investigation into time and memory is achieved through Nojo’s meticulous execution of a variety of techniques with mixed media. Firstly, Nojo prepares the foundation of his canvas with a marbled layer of acrylic paint, reminiscent of the river in the seminal work Red and White Plum Blossoms by Ogata Kōrin, the celebrated Japanese 17th-century Edo period artist. Nojo then photographs, selects, and carefully adjusts each image before transferring the image to the canvas via silk screening, allowing the marbled layer beneath to shine through. This adds an abstracted, contemporary edge to his works. Finally, layers of aluminium and silver foil are applied to the canvas.

Nojo’s work is rooted in a traditional Japanese visual language. Nojo’s use of silver – ethereal and shimmering – is particularly reminiscent of Kōrin’s marbled silver rivers often painted upon byōbu folding screens. These were symbolic of time’s flow due to the changing colour of the metal through oxidation. This depiction of time has since been adopted as a motif by artists worldwide, such as Gustav Klimt, and has become a cornerstone of a form of Japanese art known today as Rinpa (literally meaning “school of Kōrin”). In Nojo’s most recent series, entitled Rest in Silver, he plays on this art historical timeline to conjure a sense of deja-vu for the viewer: he evokes a memory tantalisingly close yet just out of reach precisely through his familiar but visionary artistic practice that coalesces traditional Japanese art with contemporary techniques.