RUI MATSUNAGA

Rui Matsunaga’s practice is founded in Asian folklore and story-telling. Her paintings are a window into a fantastical realm, a world inhabited by frenzied and at times grotesque characters - foxes, rabbits and ogres, drawn from traditional Japanese myth but immediately familiar to Western eyes - as they dance, play, revel, and cavort.

Born in Japan, Rui studied a the Royal Academy Schools and the Central Saint Martins College of Art. She has exhibited widely, including in the John Moores and Celeste Art Prize.

"I paint figures to capture a glimpse of an archetypal space so that we can contemplate our multi-dimensional and shifting realities. I believe that human contains space deep within and this is where the pathways open to something cosmic and beyond human. It is the critical point where human conditions start to dissolve."

Download CV
"Animism" (September 2015)
"Hard-boiled Wonderland" (August 2016)