Minoru Nomata

Having grown up in the industrial Tokyo district of Meguro, at a time when Japan was undergoing rapid economic growth, Nomata became fascinated by urban design and its distinct architecture. At university, he studied European and Asian art, particularly classical Islamic patterns, and became drawn to the Machine Age and the modernism of American Precisionist, Charles Sheeler. It is these formative influences that have remained a constant in shaping Nomata’s imagery.

Over the past four decades, Japanese artist Minoru Nomata has created a lexicon of imaginary buildings, monoliths, ‘eco-scapes’ and hybrid aerostats. In his singular, striking and heroic forms, Nomata celebrates the machine aesthetic and ingenuity of structural design throughout the ages. As Motoaki Hori, Chief Curator at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery describes it: ‘The exquisite draftsmanship and unique formal imagination of these paintings produces strong, ebullient architectural forms that transcend real time and space.’