There’s a common thread running through the three artists in this exhibition, and it goes beyond the fact that they are all Japanese nationals living and working in New York City. They are also each employed as assistants in the studio of the artist Tomokazu Matsuyama. Matsuyama was born in Japan in 1976. He has lived and worked in New York City. His works are in the permanent collections of LACMA; the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; the Bank of Sharjah Collection, Dubai; the Microsoft Collection; and more.

An astute reader of visuals and intentions, Matsuyama chose each of the three artists in Dystopia/Utopia as being emblematic of their own discrete thematic focus. Motoko Otsuki represents nostalgia, Mariko Fujimoto represents fantasy, and Tsukasa Kanawa represents the future. Taking in the work all at once, we can see that there is a compelling narrative running through the aesthetic languages of each artist.

But Matsuyama also identified the larger theme that arcs across the entire exhibition: The friction we find between utopian ideals and harbingers of dystopia. In their own distinct ways, thinking about and creating art around ideas of nostalgia, fantasy, and the future can be seen to represent different varieties of optimism, an essential ingredient in the creation of a utopia. And today, as various dystopian scenarios keep creeping into our reality, art might respond equally in radical anger and hopeful imaginings.