Miwa Komatsu

The Simose Art Museum has newly acquired works this year by three contemporary artists: Sam Falls, Tomokazu Matsuyama, and Miwa Komatsu. This exhibition is divided into two parts—the first and second terms—each introducing the newly acquired works and their respective artists. The second term focuses on Sam Falls and Miwa Komatsu.

Sam Falls (b. 1984) is an American artist who has gained increasing attention in recent years for his distinctive process-based approach to painting. By arranging branches, leaves, and flowers on canvas, scattering pigments, and exposing the surface to sunlight, rain, and wind, he allows natural forces to shape the work. One of the newly acquired pieces, Spring to Fall (2023–2024), is a monumental work measuring over 45 meters in width, offering viewers an immersive and almost uncanny sensation of being drawn into nature itself. From the second term onward, three new works created in Miyajima during the artist’s visit to Japan this October will be presented to the public for the first time. These works incorporate materials unique to Hiroshima, including the sacred landscape of Miyajima and trees that survived the atomic bombing.

Miwa Komatsu is a contemporary artist who explores the spiritual realm—expressing invisible forces such as spirituality and the energy of life—through motifs including guardian lion dogs (komainu) and divine spirits. Known for her live painting performances both in Japan and internationally, Komatsu has also played a significant role in Hiroshima’s cultural landscape. In 2022, she performed a powerful live painting in front of the iconic torii gate of Itsukushima Shrine in Miyajima, offering prayers for peace. This exhibition presents over 30 works spanning from her early copperplate prints to recent pieces, centered on two newly acquired works, including Within the Jewel Rain, a Pair of Glossy Green Maples Becomes a Gate upon the Mossy Horizon (2019), created at Jōjakkō-ji Temple in Kyoto, offering a comprehensive view of her singular artistic world.