The imagery of Hiroyuki Matsuura's works is a poignant expression of contemporary society's inevitable escape to the digital realm when reality disappoints, turning towards its sympathetic characters for companionship and understanding. The boy in Supersonic Gravity (Lot 1452) is suggestive of young males in their alternative guise. The dark black outline bordering smooth, saturated colors and magnified perspective show Matsuura's combined style of graphic arts and comics. Because the figures are not shown in their entirety, the viewer in essence infiltrates the physical space of the figure, searching the eyes of the man behind the masked disguise and creating a contextual narrative that extends beyond the four corners of the canvas.
Escape 1 (Lot 1529) reaches out to our contemporary utopian habits as hero, as we find ourselves further convinced of his reality by the pure pink background duping our vision as a fantasy space of animation. As the viewer subconsciously immerses into this virtual realm, establishing kinship with the protagonist, we realize our strangely compelled awe towards Matsuura's paintings, unlocking our vulnerable willingness to let down our defenses and to escape to or with these fictionalized character, hoping him to provide us solace, role-model and companionship in his fantastical universe.
In Silversnow (Lot 1530) Matsuura assimilates an aesthetic trait of byobu, traditional Japanese screen paintings of the late 16th century with a golden leaf illuminating the backdrop. In the painting he boldly changes gold into silver with the result of enhancing the subject matter titled in Silversnow. Though the golden leaf of byobu subtly gleam under the quiet lightings of traditional homes, in Matsuura's intensely refreshing realm of painterly graphics, the silver milieu radiates a brasher fluorescent sensation, possibly mimicking the digital color palette of technology. The contradictory surface between the coolness of acrylic and the softness of silver leaf is ingeniously accords great visual abundance to the painting.
In Rat Race (Lot 1453) Matsuura aims a direct satire by employing a term "rat race," which conjures up the image of a lab rat trying to escape with a futile effort of restlessly running in a wheel, alluding to the fierce work competition that our society tends to aggravate. The term is imprinted in white, making a great contrast with a rat looking black cloths of a young male, who intentionally raises his middle finger to indicate his insulting at people who are suffering from an endless, self-defeating pursuit of climbing the social ladder. Ironically it is a self-mocking imagery since he is wearing a garment with the sarcastic words on, which manifests that he is one of people in the rat race.