Erina Matsui

Erina Matsui (松井 えり菜, Matsui Erina; born January 8, 1984) is a Japanese contemporary artist. She is known for her surreal self-portraits, mostly done as oil paintings.^[1] Her work has been praised for its jarring visual impact as it defies normal representations of childhood being cute and innocent.^[2]

Matsui was born in 1984 in Okayama, Japan where she grew up.^[1] As a student, she studied oil painting and went on to win the Shell Art Award in 2004.^[3] Her education also led her to study abroad in Finland as an exchange student at the University of Art & Design Helsinki in 2006.^[4]

She graduated in 2008 with a B.F.A. from Tama Art University in Tokyo, and completed her M.A. in 2010 at the Tokyo University of the Arts.^[3] She continued her education in 2012 by fulfilling an artist residency at the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Germany, having been sponsored as a fellow for Japan's Agency of Cultural Affairs Overseas Training Program.^[3]

Before she even graduated from Tama Art University, Matsui debuted as a rising artist in 2004 at the age of 20. That year, Matsui's painting "I Love Ebi-Chili" won the gold medal for Takashi Murakami's Geisai art fair in Tokyo.^[5] One of the jury members there, Hervé Chandès (who is also the director of the Foundation Cartier in Paris), took note of her paintings and brought her on to be displayed in a group show ("J'en rêve") in summer 2005.^[6] Her pieces at the show were bought and are currently in a collection at the Foundation Cartier.^[7]

Since then, her paintings have also been purchased by the Pigozzi Collection (New York), the Takahashi Collection (Tokyo), and the Ohara Museum (Okayama).^[8] In addition to being shown in exhibits across Japan and Europe, her paintings are popular among private art collectors, such as the French billionaire Francois Pinault and the fashion designer Maurizio Galante.^[7][6]

Más recientemente, sus pinturas fueron presentadas en una exposición individual ("Planeta del Rostro") en 2016 en el Museo al Aire Libre de Kirishima . ^{[ 9 ]}

Actualmente reside en Tokio .

Matsui suele pintar autorretratos al óleo, distorsionando sus rasgos de maneras surrealistas que terminan resultando inquietantes o absurdas.

Aunque comenzó su carrera en la feria de arte Geisei de Murakami, sus pinturas están elaboradamente compuestas y poseen una profundidad que distingue su obra del estilo artístico Superflat asociado con Murakami y los artistas de Kaikai Kiki . ^{[ 10 ]} Matsui optó intencionalmente por no unirse a Kaikai Kiki (la compañía de producción artística y representación de artistas de Murakami), prefiriendo en cambio priorizar la educación en una escuela de arte. ^{[ 10 ]}

Como joven artista, sus autorretratos se utilizan a menudo como una exploración para comprender el mundo desconocido. ^{[ 6 ]} Sus pinturas juegan con temas populares de la cultura kawaii japonesa , además de incorporar símbolos de nostalgia infantil como juguetes o nanas para representar la ansiedad de los jóvenes adultos que crecen. ^{[ 6 ]} Los ajelotes son un motivo recurrente en su obra, destinado a resaltar tanto la cualidad fantástica como la de otro mundo de sus pinturas. ^{[ 2 ]}

La obra de Matsui ha aparecido en múltiples exposiciones individuales desde su debut en 2004: ^{[ 3 ]}

• 2007
  • Mi Cosmo , YAMAMOTO GENDAI, Tokio
  • Ciclo: ¡Kawaii! Japón hoy , Fundació Joan Miró , Barcelona, ​​España
• 2010
  • ¡Máquina del tiempo de un solo toque! , YAMAMOTO GENDAI, Tokio
• 2012
  • Amanecer Erina , Museo de Arte de Ohara , Okayama
  • Wabi Sabi Utopia , YAMAMOTO GENDAI, Tokio
• 2013
  • Road Sweet Road , Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Alemania
• 2015
  • Manga Mind Serenade – pintura sin parar, YAMAMOTO GENDAI, Tokio
• 2016
  • Planeta de los Rostros , Museo al Aire Libre de Kirishima , Kagoshima

• Takashi Murakami , artista contemporáneo japonés

• Sitio web oficial de Erina Matsui
• Detour Tokyo - Entrevista a Erina Matsui en YouTube
• "Las colegialas crecen" - Podcast de Studio 360 con Erina Matsui