Left – Fishing Boat at IneMiddle – ShirakawagoRight – Woodland Shrine How long have you been painting, and when did you know an art career was for you? Matthew: I’ve been painting since I was a child. I didn’t paint much during my art studies and it was during my early twenties that I decided to concentrate fully on painting. Have you always worked with watercolours? M: I focused on watercolours for a long time, but over the past year, I’ve been painting a lot in oils. I find it refreshing to change medium as it presents so many more challenges. It’s important to try to keep a fresh approach … Read More

“Jiji and Kinako on Washi”, your photography exhibition with Sway Gallery London, explored the extraordinary connection between a 94-year-old man with Alzheimer’s and his loving cat. Celebrating relationships is a key theme of your work – how have you adapted during the pandemic, since many of us are unable to meet others in person? Akiko: It was hard and it still is hard to adapt to this new-normal. I am someone who needs human connection and the more the pandemic situation got serious and the more this new-normal became real, I began to crave for it. However, I found that it wasn’t just me. When we still didn’t know much … Read More

You’ve held two solo shows in 2018 and 2020 at Sway Gallery London, how did these come about? SAKI: Sway Gallery had kindly contacted me to offer me show space. The first show (“Hana Machi”) went really well and so we decided to collaborate on another (socially distanced) exhibition called “Tayu Tau”. We’re hoping to plan a third one but… we’ll see. Having started out in street art in 2009, you’ve since become well-known for other art forms and mediums, such as illustration and portraiture painting – was this a natural transition? S: Yes, when I think about my art career, everything just happened naturally. At first, I wasn’t even … Read More