Hiroto Tomonaga captures transitory moments in which things he is looking at ever so briefly appear to him as something else, and strives to render this in painting. He plays with shifts in perception, the way vision alternates between foreground and background, or interprets one thing as another, all of which is similarly echoed in the repetitive back and forth in his layering, removing, and mark making with paint. In this way, the changes that occur before his eyes gradually translate into paint on the canvas, becoming fixed on the surface. Working with subject matter close to himself, this process is a means for Tomonaga to ruminate on distance and depth, both physical and emotional. While the resulting paintings are fixed, they feel as if they might resume moving once again, and express the sense of helplessness the artist himself feels regarding the world he sees before him.

 

Hiroto Tomonaga was born in Saga Prefecture, Japan, in 1997 and is currently based in Tokyo. In 2020, he graduated from the Department of Painting at Musashino Art University, and received a Master of Fine Arts from the same institution in 2022. He has presented in solo exhibitions including “Diffuse Reflection” (Musashino Art University, 2023), “Changeable Sight” (KOSAKU KANECHIKA, 2023), “Balance” (gallery Binosha, 2022), and notable group exhibitions include “FACE2022” (SOMPO Museum, 2022), and “Awkward Feeling” (YOD TOKYO, 2022). In 2022, he was a finalist for FACE2022, and received a judge’s prize at Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi.