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Ippodo Gallery

ASIA WEEK NEW YORK 2024

Cosmic Sound: Master Paintings by Ken Matsubara

March 14 – April 4, 2024

We are proud to present Cosmic Sound: Master Paintings by Ken Matsubara, a culmination of the artist’s concepts featuring 20 of the beloved painter’s unique artworks for this 15th year of Asia Week New York. Matsubara showcases his series spanning his long and illustrious career, including three works depicting the auspicious and fearsome dragon zodiac, the spectacular 12-panel Kūkai’s View, and versions of Scenery and the Moon Sound.

Ken Matsubara (b. 1948) came to the medium of painting as a young man living amongst monks at a Buddhist temple in north-central Japan. Now residing in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, a natural landscape of rivers and waterfalls, Matsubara sojourned across the Japanese archipelago, finding inspiration through researching local imaginations of the dragon—sometimes a sky god or spirit of the water. The transcendental themes of his youth continue to permeate his works. One universal symbol is the circle, symbolizing the resonant sound of a ringing prayer bowl. The repetitive shape muddies the separation between sun or moon, sky or sea, or foreground from background: all is one and one is all.

We thank Shonosuke Okura for the special otsuzumi drum performance during the opening reception. The acclaimed musician is the 15th generation to receive the otsuzumi tradition.

To learn more and view the Artist Talk with Ken Matsubara, click here.

To view the online exhibition: click here.

 

ABOUT THE GALLERY

Ippodo Gallery is a cultural bridge to Japan’s living master artists. Founded in Tokyo (1996-), the New York gallery (2008-) presents fine handcrafted and rare works created using traditional materials and methods. Each piece selected embodies Japanese aesthetic sensitivity that is born of a spiritual bond with nature. Ippodo’s exhibition program features unique objects — fine ceramics, lacquerware, metal crafts, sculpture, paintings, and works on paper — that celebrate human invention, the natural world, and sublime beauty.