Born in 1984 in Shiga, Japan, Nozomi Tojinbara is a contemporary painter and Associate Professor at Kyoto City University of Arts, where she also earned her Ph.D. in Oil Painting in 2020. Currently based in Kyoto, Tojinbara has established herself as one of the leading voices of her generation in contemporary Japanese painting. Her work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions across Japan, including In Search of the Shadow of a Star (MITSUKOSHI CONTEMPORARY GALLERY, Tokyo, 2026), Wishes and Ashes (MATSUO MEGUMI + VOICE GALLERY pfs/w, Kyoto, 2024), and Do You Believe in Magic? (MITSUKOSHI CONTEMPORARY GALLERY, Tokyo, 2023). She has also participated in major group exhibitions in Japan, Taiwan, Greece, and the United States, and her paintings are held in prestigious public collections including the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art and the Tokushima Modern Art Museum. Recipient of numerous awards—including the Kyoto Prefectural Cultural Encouragement Award (2026), the Shiga Prefectural Cultural Encouragement Award (2022), and the Special Prize at the 24th Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art (2021)—Tojinbara's practice is distinguished by its thoughtful dialogue between historical painting and contemporary visual culture.
Born in 1984 in Shiga, Japan, Nozomi Tojinbara is a contemporary painter and Associate Professor at Kyoto City University of Arts, where she also earned her Ph.D. in Oil Painting in 2020. Currently based in Kyoto, Tojinbara has established herself as one of the leading voices of her generation in contemporary Japanese painting. Her work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions across Japan, including In Search of the Shadow of a Star (MITSUKOSHI CONTEMPORARY GALLERY, Tokyo, 2026), Wishes and Ashes (MATSUO MEGUMI + VOICE GALLERY pfs/w, Kyoto, 2024), and Do You Believe in Magic? (MITSUKOSHI CONTEMPORARY GALLERY, Tokyo, 2023). She has also participated in major group exhibitions in Japan, Taiwan, Greece, and the United States, and her paintings are held in prestigious public collections including the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art and the Tokushima Modern Art Museum. Recipient of numerous awards—including the Kyoto Prefectural Cultural Encouragement Award (2026), the Shiga Prefectural Cultural Encouragement Award (2022), and the Special Prize at the 24th Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art (2021)—Tojinbara's practice is distinguished by its thoughtful dialogue between historical painting and contemporary visual culture.
We enter another world in moments of deep immersion in narrative, stepping beyond everyday reality. When we are moved by the final scene of a film, stand at a turning point with the protagonist in a game, or fall silent before the solemn light of Baroque painting, we are not simply escaping reality. These moments allow us to reframe how we see the world and ourselves.
My paintings stage theatrical spaces shaped by dramatic light and shadow reminiscent of Baroque painting, inhabited by fragile young heroes and heroines. Within these spaces, myth, history, and game-like narratives intersect across time and culture, forming scenes that feel both familiar and displaced. The resulting dissonance prevents the narrative from converging into a single ending, keeping it open to multiple interpretations.
In a contemporary context where images and narratives circulate globally, culture does not emerge from a singular origin but through layered distortions and overlaps. By bringing together Baroque aesthetics, game narratives, and lived experience, I attempt to articulate this structure within the pictorial space.
I do not consider painting as a medium that presents a completed story, but as an event in which the viewer's perspective moves between reality and narrative, self and other. I hope my work becomes a space where viewers encounter their own untold stories, and through them, discover unfamiliar aspects of themselves.
Nozomi Tojinbara
