JD Malat Gallery in Dubai has organised Hone Intuition, a solo exhibition by Japanese artist Masayoshi Nojo. It explores perception, memory, and the passage of time through a series of mixed-media works that merge contemporary image-making with centuries-old Japanese artistic traditions. Nojo transforms landscapes into shifting visual experiences that invite viewers to slow down and engage with the subtleties of observation. The show will remain open until 9 June 2026.
The exhibition’s title, Hone Intuition, serves as both a proposition and a methodology. It suggests a process of refining perception through attentive looking, encouraging visitors to move beyond immediate impressions and become more aware of the gradual transformations that occur within the artworks themselves. Throughout the exhibition, Nojo creates an atmosphere of stillness and concentration where meaning emerges not through narrative or symbolism alone but through sustained viewing.
Central to Nojo’s practice is his distinctive technical process. Each work begins with a carefully prepared surface covered in marbled acrylic patterns. These fluid, river-like forms evoke the celebrated screens of the Edo-period master Ogata Kōrin, whose influence remains embedded within Nojo’s visual language. The artist then incorporates photographic imagery through silkscreen techniques, layering landscapes and architectural fragments onto the surface before applying silver and aluminium leaf. The resulting compositions possess a remarkable depth and luminosity. They appear to change according to light conditions, viewing angles, and the movement of the observer.
The influence of the Rinpa school is particularly evident throughout the exhibition. Established in seventeenth-century Japan, the Rinpa tradition is renowned for its decorative elegance, flattened spatial compositions, and sophisticated use of metallic surfaces. Nojo reinterprets these historical references through a contemporary lens and creates works that feel simultaneously rooted in art history and distinctly modern. Rather than reproducing traditional motifs, he adapts their underlying principles, using reflective materials and layered imagery to explore how memory and perception are continuously reshaped by time.
Many of the displayed art pieces belong to Nojo’s ongoing Mirage series, in which landscapes drawn from different locations and personal journeys are combined into imagined environments. These scenes often appear familiar yet impossible to place precisely. Forests emerge through shimmering surfaces, creating images that seem suspended between reality and recollection. The artist describes memory as a “shifting image,” and the works embody that concept by resisting fixed interpretation. They evoke the sensation of recognising a place while simultaneously realising that it exists only within the realm of memory and imagination.
The exhibition also demonstrates Nojo’s enduring interest in the material qualities of silver. Historically, silver played a significant role in Japanese painting, particularly in folding screens, where oxidation gradually altered the surface over time. Nojo embraces this historical association between silver and temporality, employing metallic leaf not merely as a decorative element but as an active participant in the work. The reflective surfaces capture and transform ambient light, so no two encounters with the same artwork are exactly alike. The dynamic relationship between object, environment, and viewer reinforces the exhibition’s broader investigation into impermanence and change.
Hone Intuition does not seek to overwhelm viewers with spectacle or narrative complexity. Instead, it rewards patience and attentiveness. As visitors move through the gallery, images gradually reveal themselves, reflections shift, and subtle details emerge from beneath luminous surfaces. The artworks seem to exist in a state of perpetual becoming, mirroring the fluid nature of memory itself.
The exhibition contributes to contemporary discussions surrounding perception and temporality. By drawing together traditional Japanese artistic heritage and contemporary techniques, the show creates a visual environment where past and present, memory and reality, stillness and movement coexist. Through its shimmering surfaces and contemplative atmosphere, Hone Intuition encourages viewers to reconsider not only how they see art, but how they experience the world around them.
About the artist
Masayoshi Nojo (b. 1989, Kanagawa, Japan), who resides in Tokyo, completed his Master’s degree in Japanese Painting at the Kyoto University of Art and Design in 2015. Since then, he has developed a highly recognisable visual language that bridges historical Japanese aesthetics and contemporary artistic concerns.
His practice draws upon traditional techniques while engaging with themes that resonate across cultures, including memory, landscape, perception, and the experience of time. Through a combination of painting, photography, printmaking, and metallic surfaces, Nojo creates works that challenge conventional distinctions between representation and abstraction.
Nojo has showcased his art pieces in many exhibitions, such as Optical Scenery (solo) (Eslite Gallery, Taipei City, Taiwan, 2025); Summer Exhibition (JD Malat Gallery, London, UK, 2023); ACTIVATE KOGEI + ART GINZA2022 (Matsuya Ginza, Tokyo, Japan, 2022); Contemporary Istanbul (JD Malat Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey, 2020); VOLTA NY (Gallery Art Composition Tokyo, PIER 90 NY, USA, 2018); Art Jakarta (Gallery Art Composition Tokyo, The Ritz – Carlton Pacific Place, Jakarta, Indonesia, 2017), and others.
Nojo has received a number of awards, including the Sagawa Art Museum Eiichi Kuriwada Special Award (2014), the Grand Prize Turner Award (2013), and the 6th Seison Maeda Prize (2012), among others. His artworks are part of several public collections, such as the Sagawa Art Museum (Shiga, Japan), Ueshima Museum Collection (Tokyo, Japan), and the Prince Gallery, Marriott Hotels (Tokyo).
To get more information about Hone Intuition, please go to the exhibition’s official web page.
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