Katsuhiko Matsubara, Hourglass configuration #1,2,3, 2018
Installation views in Cabinet, 2020

Katsuhiko Matsubara

Born in 1986 in Tokyo. Lives and works in Berlin. He graduated the University of fine arts of Hamburg, Prof. Anslem Reyle in 2016 and is currently artist-in-resident at Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Internationales Atelierprogramm) in Berlin.

Katsuhiko Matsubara is a painter, who investigates how the self-aware human mind processes its own existence. He treats his art pieces as creatures, which resonate with the ethos of mythology and animism. These beings are characterized by a mix of organic forms and violent textures, which invoke the impression of fetuses, animals or organs, tactilely expressing their intrinsic desires. His painting practice functions as genesis – giving the creature form and substance. Under the artist’s conscious control, Matsubara interfuses flesh like colors, textures and shapes on the canvas surface until he begins to feel an existence. This process is a fine balance of control and coincidences, which perceptually links with embryonic development. As a fundamental source of being, the creatures exist in pursuit of achieving what their mythical counterparts are experiencing in their stories – the concealed truth beyond day to day human life. This very existence appeals to primal emotions of us humans and questions us, what our own reality is about.