Tomokazu Matsuyama
Monograph
Born in Japan in 1976, Tomokazu Matsuyama is a New York based fine artist who specializes in creating large scale paintings and sculptures using a wide spectrum of bright, vibrant colors. He has had solo exhibitions in New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Luxembourg, Tokyo, Osaka, and Hong Kong. His work can be seen in the public collections of the Cosmopolitan Hotel Group (NV) and the Royal Family (Dubai, UAE), The Standard Hotel (Andre Balazs Group) as well as commissioned projects with Burton Snowboards, LeSportSac, Nike, and Levi Strauss brand collections.
STUDIO NEWWORK was assigned to design his monograph, The Making of Permanent Traveler, when Matsuyama was commissioned to create artwork "Permanent Traveler". This book was produced as a supporting part of the artwork. It was published in 2014 and printed only a limited number of copies.
Within his work, he reinterprets Japanese Edo and Meiji period imagery as well as contemporary motifs and patterning from US and Europe, and he blends what is seen as Eastern and Western aesthetics into one that resists categorization and cultural belonging. Inspired by his work, the publication design is an exquisite mixture of traditional and non-traditional style of process books, photo journals, and exhibition catalogues. By showing the step-by-step process of producing the large scale painting with images of sketches, details of painting techniques, scenery in the studio and final artwork, this book tells coherent stories and explains his and his exceptional team's meticulous process that led to final artwork. The image on the cover displays a snippet of final artwork, and it turns into continuous yellow section dividers on each section cover. Rich white space contrasts with vibrant paint colors, and it displays both process and final artwork beautifully. Images bleed out to edges for creating rhythm to page composition, while also navigating the reader smoothly to next page.
Author: Matsuyama, Tomokazu.
Title: The Making of Permanent Traveler
Book Details: 298 x 298 mm, 136 pages, Hardcover, Offset print
Commissioned Art Project by Jun Takagi
Commissioned Art Project by Jun Takagi
Text by Sayaka Toyama, Andy Hsu
Photographed by Yojiro Imasaka
