Japanese artist Masayoshi Nojo is exhibiting at JD Malat Gallery Dubai this month, exploring memory, perception, and the quiet act of observation through layered contemporary works inspired by traditional Japanese aesthetics.
Titled Hone Intuition, the exhibition runs from May 12 to June 9 and marks Nojo’s latest body of work, continuing his exploration of time and shifting memory through intricate mixed-media compositions that evolve depending on light, movement, and the viewer’s perspective.
The exhibition takes a more introspective direction compared to some of the artist’s previous works, inviting visitors into what the gallery describes as “a space of attentiveness and stillness.” Rather than demanding immediate interpretation, the works reward slow looking.
Nojo’s process combines marbled acrylic surfaces, silkscreen imagery, and layers of silver and aluminium leaf, techniques that reference the legacy of Japanese Rinpa painter Ogata Kōrin while firmly situating the work within a contemporary context.
Many of the landscapes featured throughout the exhibition are drawn from fragments of personal travel and memory, though they intentionally avoid becoming literal depictions of place. Instead, the works operate somewhere between familiarity and abstraction, creating what the artist refers to as a “shifting image.”
Born in Japan in 1989, Nojo completed his MA in Japanese Paintings at Kyoto University of Art and Design in 2015. His work has become recognised for merging traditional Japanese techniques with contemporary image-making, often reflecting on the relationship between landscape, memory, and time.
Founded by Paris-born curator and art dealer Jean-David Malat, JD Malat Gallery Dubai has quickly established itself as one of Dubai’s more internationally focused contemporary galleries, with spaces in both London and Dubai and a programme spanning painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed media.
The exhibition is open daily from 10AM to 10PM at the gallery’s Downtown Dubai space.