Yusuke Muraki
Born 1984, Tokyo
Sunlight pours down through the leaves, dripping water gives rise to streams, and the wind strikes the mountains, swirls, and dances up into the sky.
Trees reach toward the heavens and put down roots in the earth; connected with all manner of living things, they endure the seasons and fulfill their lives.
The balance that arises there is, I feel, nothing less than a miracle.
I surrender body and mind to the images I receive from nature, layering them one upon another on the canvas. As I paint, moving back and forth between the conscious and the unconscious, between chance and intention, the presence of animals at some point rises up from within the abstract forms. I call them “Disappeared Animals.”
For me, painting is not a means of depicting nature. It is a place for encountering once again what cannot be seen, what has been lost, and the presence that undeniably exists there. In that moment, painting becomes a gate connecting the human world with the world of the wild.
Trees reach toward the heavens and put down roots in the earth; connected with all manner of living things, they endure the seasons and fulfill their lives.
The balance that arises there is, I feel, nothing less than a miracle.
I surrender body and mind to the images I receive from nature, layering them one upon another on the canvas. As I paint, moving back and forth between the conscious and the unconscious, between chance and intention, the presence of animals at some point rises up from within the abstract forms. I call them “Disappeared Animals.”
For me, painting is not a means of depicting nature. It is a place for encountering once again what cannot be seen, what has been lost, and the presence that undeniably exists there. In that moment, painting becomes a gate connecting the human world with the world of the wild.
Born and raised in Tokyo's shitamachi, the city's old downtown. Moved to Berlin, Germany, in 2015 to pursue a path in music. The following year, 2016, moved to Northern California in the United States and lived in the mountains for the first time, for about six months. That winter, met a wolf that lived with a friend; the experience of living alongside it for about two months led to the beginning of abstract painting. Continued making work after returning to Tokyo, and named the series that emerged from a search for connection with nature “Disappeared Animals (消えた動物たち).” In 2024, moved to Niseko, Hokkaido, to work while immersed more deeply in nature. Now continues to make work on the themes of the cycles of nature, the balance of life, and the connection between the human world and the wild.
Exhibitions & Awards
Biography
1984 Born in Tokyo
2015 Moved to Berlin, Germany
2016 Lived in the mountains of Northern California, USA. Began making abstract paintings
2024 Moved to Niseko, Hokkaido
Selected Exhibitions
2022 Solo exhibition “Disappeared Animals”, Cy, Kamakura, Kanagawa
2025 Two-person exhibition “Duo Exhibition”, MEDEL GALLERY SHU NISEKO, Hokkaido
2025 Solo exhibition “3つの要素 / Three Elements”, MEDEL GALLERY SHU, Harajuku, Tokyo
2026 Group exhibition “Vortex Rule”, organized by Pot Gallery, Omotesando, Tokyo
Audio GuideThe artist’s path and highlights of the work
