Rui Matsunaga was born in Japan in 1968 but pursued her artistic education in London, England, earning her BA in Fine Art Painting from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (1999), followed by an MA from the Royal Academy of Arts Schools (2002). Her intricately detailed paintings, drawings, and etchings integrate a vast array of influences — from Japanese ancient scroll paintings and modern manga to Western mythology and art — into her unique, fantastical works. Her art, rich with cultural narratives, explores themes of ecological degradation, the apocalypse, and human-nature dynamics, often through depictions of whimsical yet profound interactions between animals and their environments.
Artist Rui Matsunaga was born in Japan in 1968. However, she immigrated to London, England to pursue her artistic education, earning her BA in Fine Art Painting from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (1999), followed by an MA from the Royal Academy of Arts Schools (2002). Matsunaga's intricately detailed paintings, drawings, and etchings explore a vast array of cultural influences, from ancient Japanese emakimono (traditional scroll paintings), notably the Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga, to contemporary elements, such as modern manga, mythology, anime, and Hollywood, weaving them into her unique and fantastical imagery. Deeply rooted deeply in Asian folklore and storytelling, her work depicts enchanting realms populated by a diverse cast of characters, from the whimsical to the grotesque. These small creatures, in the artist’s own words, ‘can be seen as spirits of nature but also as morphed projections of our human existence, and they explore our fragile and sometimes treacherous relationship to nature in a subtle narrative poetic manner’ (Studio 88). Matsunaga's work is deeply enriched by her exposure to European art, particularly through her experiences in England. The historical and mythological layers found in Western European paintings, especially those relating to Christianity, Greek mythology, and folklore, significantly inspire her. Matsunaga is particularly fascinated by how these works are densely layered with stories and moral lessons that have been passed down through generations. By engaging with European art history — from Renaissance paintings to drawings and etchings — Matsunaga crafts a compelling visual language that transcends cultural boundaries, creating a narrative that harmoniously bridges Eastern and Western traditions.
Matsunaga's work explores themes of time, inevitability, and the transient nature of life, against vast, unchanged landscapes, portraying lives as fleeting echoes within the eternal cycle of nature. Her engagement extends into topics such as the apocalypse, ecological degradation, and the intricate relationship between humans and nature. Drawing inspiration from multiple sources —including Albrecht Dürer’s artwork, animism, various tribal and religious myths, and pressing contemporary issues, like climate change— Matsunaga's series on the apocalypse stands out for its vivid portrayal of end times scenarios. Her artistic reflections explore the profound implications of Japan's history as a post-nuclear society, particularly focusing on the environmental and cultural repercussions of nuclear bombings and the country's rapid industrialisation. This historical backdrop serves as a critical context for her work, where she often portrays dystopic visions of the future through the depiction of frogs and rabbits inhabiting deserted, bone-strewn landscapes. These desolate scenes are not merely speculative fiction but are imbued with deep environmental concerns, echoing the narratives of survival and the quest for new understandings of reality and our relationship with nature seen in Japanese media, such as the Godzilla series and manga such as Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira and Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä. Matsunaga often juxtaposes enchanting, fantastical imagery with stark symbols of civilisation's decay, such as plastic bags clinging to otherwise magnificent trees, with subtle nods to the atomic devastations of the past. This duality serves as a powerful visual metaphor, emphasising the environmental toll of scientific advancement, over-consumption, and our growing dependency on technology. Through these poignant visuals, Matsunaga highlights the critical, often overlooked consequence of progress and the potential annihilation of the natural world. Embracing an animist perspective, she challenges dominant views of human superiority, advocating for a respectful and spiritually aware engagement with nature.
Matsunaga’s etchings inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy explore the depths of psychological experiences and the subconscious. The artist highlights Dante's paradox, where deep introspection leads to spiritual ascension, paralleling her own journey through art (Contra). Matsunaga's engagement with themes of transformation and rebirth echo the transformative narratives found in Dante’s epic journey. Inspired by Bellini and Durer, Matsuyama has also explored the story of Saint Jerome and the lion, emphasising themes beyond human dominance over nature, highlighting deep companionship and a mutual gaze into an unseen landscape, and suggesting a profound, shared inner world. Matsunaga articulates a vision of art as a means to explore multi-dimensional realities, suggesting that the human experience harbours pathways to cosmic and beyond-human realms. This philosophical perspective imbues her work with depth, inviting viewers to ponder their existence in relation to the broader universe. A pivotal aspect of Matsunaga's creative process involves extensive drawing, particularly the animals that she frequently features, taking inspiration from Japanese scrolls and manuscripts, assembling a visual archive that fuels the narratives unfolding in her work. This methodology highlights the organic evolution of her artistic narratives, where each piece emerges from a synthesis of imagination and cultural memory.
Matsunaga was a finalist in the Celeste Art Prize (2007) and the John Moores Painting Prize, Liverpool (2012). She has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include: Paper Gallery, Manchester (2019); Atkinson Southport (2021); and the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, London (2021). In the UK public domain, her work is represented in the Central Saint Martins Museum collection.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Rui Matsunaga ]
Publications related to [Rui Matsunaga ] in the Ben Uri Library