Rui Matsunaga recent paintings and drawings

Rui Matsunaga recent paintings and drawings. 22nd March 2007 until 6th May 2007. Phone 020 7033 3678 for details

Rui Matsunaga Recent Paintings and Drawings

Rui Matsunaga’s hypnotic paintings draw you into other times and other worlds. She transports elements of the present into an unknown future, creating gatekeepers who seem to beckon us into their spiritual world – magazine pin-ups adopt the lotus pose and commune with the dead and Mickey Mouse turns to the dark side. Nature is dominant here, and wolves and owls, ivy and cherry blossom frame each character as divining rods, pagan symbols and spheres of energy circle overhead. A delicate grisaille girl punctuates Matsunaga’s work. Perhaps an alter-ego of the artist, her body is an amalgam of futuristic armour, flowers and cobweb tatting, her uplifted eyes looking far into the future. She is entranced, lost in a vision. Her raised hand asks us to pause a moment and join her in the experience. How can we refuse?
Charlotte Mullins, February 2007

Gallery Primo Alonso is delighted to present London-based Japanese artist, Rui Matsunaga’s first solo exhibition where she will show a series of paintings and new large-scale drawings. Matsunaga’s enigmatic paintings seem to fuse a multitude of references from ancient magics to cybernetics that all lead to a meditative sense of our universal human condition. Another perspective to seeing Matsunaga's paintings and drawings are that they are rooted in the Japanese background of a post nuclear bombed society and the cultural impact of that in relation to nature and fiction. Her works draw inspiration from contemporary Manga and mythology to reflect an increasingly technologised world where a new spirit of mind raises a range of questions to our relationship with nature, the unseen world of the magical and the spiritual.

Rui Matsunaga graduated from the Royal Academy School of Art in 2002 and has since exhibited internationally and widely. Her work is currently featured in the book ‘Painting People’, by Charlotte Mullins published by Thames and Hudson.

Gallery Primo Alonso is a new space in London’s East End and Matsunaga’s show will be their first one-person presentation. The artist-run not-for profit gallery is located on Hackney Road within close proximity to Bethnal Green and the galleries of Vyner Street. The directors at the helm are Angelica Sule, Paul Murphy and Richard Gallagher.

The exhibition runs from 23^rd March 2007 until 6^th May

Private view 22^nd March 6 until pm.

click on images to enlarge