TYPE-XII Tomokazu Matsuyama project
The “TYPE-XII Tomokazu Matsuyama project” is in collaboration with Tomokazu Matsuyama, a globally renowned contemporary artist based in New York. This project seamlessly fuses A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE’s design process with Matsuyama’s multifaceted imagery into a single piece of cloth, showcasing new possibilities at the intersection of art and design.
Matsuyama will hold his first large-scale solo exhibition in Tokyo, “Tomokazu Matsuyama: FIRST LAST,” at Azabudai Hills Gallery from Saturday, March 8 to Sunday, May 11. The exhibition will feature approximately 40 works, including 15 large-scale pieces premiering in Japan, offering an immersive experience of contemporary reality through his dynamic use of color and grand-scale paintings. For more details about the exhibition, please click here.
As a satellite project of this exhibition, “Tribute + Collaboration 1” will be held in the gallery space, where coats and T-shirts specially created for the exhibition will be exclusively displayed and sold (*only available at the gallery during the exhibition period).
Three unique coats were created, each reconstructed from Matsuyama’s diverse artworks into a single piece of cloth. The base fabric, vividly printed in Kyoto, features a triangular pattern applied with a special technique. This unique texture changes its expression three-dimensionally in response to the body’s movements, offering a fresh source of inspiration for everyday life.
The T-shirts incorporate Matsuyama’s “Cluster 2020” series into A-POC’s seamless knit fabric. Each piece is individually printed with a unique fragment from a 33-piece canvas series, making every T-shirt one of a kind. This exclusive release is limited to 33 pieces.
From Tomokazu Matsuyama
By reconstructing paintings into wearable three-dimensional pieces, a new value emerges—one that differs from their original essence. Through this joint work with the A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE team, I was able to share the experience of creating that new value. In the crossover with Miyamae, I believe we were able to present a fresh perspective on the fusion of art and fashion.
Tomokazu Matsuyama
Born in 1976 in Gifu, Japan, Matsuyama is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. His work spans painting, sculpture, and installation, organically blending and reimagining diverse elements–such as ancient and modern, figurative and abstract, Eastern and Western. His art reflects both his cross-cultural experiences and the evolving nature of contemporary society in our information-driven world. Major public art projects include the Bowery Mural (New York, USA, 2019), Hanao (JR Shinjuku Station East Square, Tokyo, 2020), and Wheels of Fortune (Meiji Shrine, Tokyo, 2020, part of the Jingu Gaien Art Festival). Recent notable exhibitions include Mythologiques (Venice Biennale, 2024), MATSUYAMA Tomokazu: Fictional Landscape (Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, 2023), and MATSUYAMA Tomokazu: Fictional Landscape (Shanghai Powerlong Museum, 2023). Matsuyama’s work is also on view at Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris through February 2025.
