Tomokazu Matsuyama: weaving myths, layering identity

The image, as we understand it, no longer succeeds but precedes experience, entering our memory before we even have a narrative for it. Once trusted to capture time, the picture has come to serve as a message, carrying fragments of self, desire, and belief, gradually unmooring itself from its origins. Meaning metamorphoses, identity becomes provisional, and myth enters not as history or inheritance, but as a modern construct. The individual in the image has long held significance in shaping our social identity, proving essential to our life stories, and of the assurance of the earth standing still for long enough to allow us to recognise our place upon it. Having originally spoken in 2024, when Japanese artist Tomokazu Matsuyama‘s exhibition was running concurrently to the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale, his interview appears even more poignant than ever, as we lead our lives by social media. Looking at Matsuyama’s paintings he allows everything to enter into his sphere of thinking — a world that is visually decorative while being intentionally destabilising at the same time. The eternally youthful punctuate his paintings like characters performing on a stage. Positioned within touching distance of one another, Matsuyama’s figures nonetheless appear forlorn — more isolated than engaged with their surroundings. They occupy space physically yet remain emotionally and psychologically disconnected from it. This estrangement lies at the heart of his vision. In his time, the Polish sociologist and philosopher Zygmunt Bauman spoke of a “liquid modern life,” in which there are “no permanent bonds,” and any we form must be tied loosely enough to be undone and reconfigured as circumstances inevitably change. That fluidity — the fusion of past and present — is central to how Matsuyama sees the world. It is also key to understanding the exhibition’s title.

“Mythologiques,” he explains, “draws inspiration from Claude Lévi-Strauss’s structuralist ideas, especially his exploration of myths as frameworks for understanding cultural narratives. By invoking this title, I wanted to reflect on the layering of identity in our globalised era, where cultural symbols and histories intersect fluidly.” Matsuyama creates worlds that are anything but flat. His motifs offer evidence of the postmodern condition — one in which we see and feel the present through future technologies, existing as much within the digital realm as within physical reality.

Uncertainty, and the instability of truth itself, is essential to how we should read these paintings. There is none of life’s dirt colouring the final image. Instead, they possess a cartoon-like cleanliness in which everything becomes decorative. The shadow cast by the American flag being hoisted on Mount Suribachi in Catharsis Metanoia — reproduced from Joe Rosenthal’s iconic wartime photograph — is rendered as surface pattern. A football helmet rests on a sofa table like a fake trophy, illustrating how our lives are increasingly shaped by illusion, misinformation, and hollow ambition. Here, decoration carries meaning. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in Passage Immortalitas (2024), where Matsuyama draws from an Old Master depiction of the Annunciation, recasting its figures with the stylised youthfulness of a K-pop boy band. A discarded pizza box rests on the table before them. The scene overflows with extravagant detail, its surface intentionally unsettled by a snowfall of uncertainty. We are left to ask: Is anything we see real?

Installed against the coloured walls of a semi-circular set — centred by a manga-styled mirrored sculpture — Matsuyama’s works unfold as montages. Multiple canvases are configured to suggest narrative, yet feel perpetually reconfigurable: furnishings could move forward, figures could recede. What we encounter resembles Instagram imagery, where identities merge and meanings become simultaneously curated and confused. Like commercials for contemporary living, these are ‘wallpaper’ paintings — referencing immersion without offering the real. As Matsuyama himself explains, “the ‘real’ holds significance in my work but often serves only as a starting point rather than the focus. I incorporate real-world symbols, cultural references, and familiar imagery, layering them in ways that allow new meanings to emerge, blurring the line between what’s ‘fake’ and what’s perceived as reality.” In the modern condition, surface and falsehood have fused so completely that seeking truth can feel indistinguishable from performing illusion.

To come, Tomokazu is curating Soft Reins (6th February – 22nd March, 2026), a group exhibition at Acquavella Galleries’ Palm Beach location. The exhibition explores the enduring significance of the horse as a powerful symbol and artistic muse, highlighting how the animal has inspired art, mythology, and storytelling throughout art history. He will also show a work for Midnight Moment in Times Square in April; that work will be shown on over 92 digital displays spanning 41st to 49th Streets in Manhattan, New York.

Rajesh Punj: Having returned from Venice some days ago, I wanted to begin by asking about the exhibition title and its meaning.

Tomokazu Matsuyama: The title Mythologiques draws inspiration from Claude Lévi-Strauss’s structuralist ideas, especially his exploration of myths as frameworks for understanding cultural narratives. By invoking this title, I wanted to reflect on the layering of identity in our globalised era, where cultural symbols and histories intersect fluidly. The exhibition creates a space for these narratives to coexist, inviting viewers to explore identity as something that evolves through constant dialogue and reinterpretation.