Soshiro Matsubara (JP)

Soshiro Matsubara often makes use of overly romanticized moments in art history, as means to examine the potential of art as a romantic pursuit or obsession. Several pieces draw on the turbulent love affair between Oskar Kokoschka and Alma Mahler in the 1900s: upon being abandoned by Mahler, Kokoschka heartbrokenly had a doll fashioned in her image. Filled with ambiguity and eeriness, Matsubara’s ceramics, paintings, and installations become emblems of the forces of attraction – from mad obsession to sensuous unions with the beloved. In 2017 he founded the antique shop 'Haus der Matsubara'.

Soshiro Matsubara (b. 1980, Hokkaido, JP) lives and works in Vienna. Recent and upcoming solo exhibitions include: Union Pacific (2022; UK); Bel Ami, (2022; US); MACRO (2021; IT); Fern Residency (2021; BE). Recent and upcoming group shows include: Den Frie (2022; DK); Aspen Art Museum (2021; US); Crévecoeur (2020; FR); Kunsthalle Aarhus (2019; DK).