Soshiro Matsubara

Soshiro Matsubara is an atypical Japanese insofar as he lives at the antipodes of minimalism in the capital of the ornamental: Vienna. His art is the result of a fascinating combination of black humour, refined historical references, aesthetic dandyism and iconographic eccentricity. Soshiro loves pop music as the ultimate repository of collective desires. His favourite song is ‘Sweet Memories’ by Seiko Matsuda, of which he created a memorable cover version. He contemplates spaces, objects and people, and then translates them into formally and conceptually rich and layered objects and environments, populated by ceramics, paintings and installations. He finds inspiration in imagery from the books, magazines, objects and paintings he collects in markets or antique shops. A good number of them end up on Haus Der Matsubara: the IG account of the shop of the same name (an online antique store run by the artist).

Soshiro Matsubara lives and works in Vienna. He has held solo exhibitions at MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome; Martina Simeti, Milan; Croy Nielsen, Vienna; Union Pacific, London; Schiefe Zähne, Berlin; Bel Ami, Los Angeles; Brennan & Griffin, New York; and with the XYZ collective in Tokyo. Recent group exhibitions include Dark Figures Surround Me, curated by Hugo Alcantara at Menaea Collection, London; Uknown Familiars: The Vienna Insurance Group Collections at Leopold Museum, Vienna; Presque Partout FRAC Lorraine, Metz. The artist has an upcoming exhibition at Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund, Germany, in May 2025.