Makoto Fujimura

Makoto Fujimura is an American artist.

He is considered to be one of the leading figures of "slow art" movement.

He has coined the terms "Culture Care" and "Theology of Making".

He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bucknell University, then studied in a traditional Japanese painting doctorate program for several years at Tokyo University of the Arts with several notable artists such as Takashi Murakami and Hiroshi Senju.

His bicultural arts education led his style towards a fusion between contemplative art and expressionism, using the traditional materials of Japanese art of Nihonga.

His art is significantly influenced by Sen no Rikyū.

Fujimura was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Both of his parents were of Japanese descent and after Fujimura was born, they returned to Japan, where Fujimura spent most of his childhood.

When he was 13 years old, his family came back to the United States.

Fujimura graduated cum laude from Bucknell University in 1983 with a double major in animal behavior and art and a minor in creative writing.

Fujimura went on to study traditional Japanese painting at the Tokyo University of the Arts under a Nihonga Master Kazuho Hieda.

He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1989.

He was invited back to the Tokyo University of the Arts to continue his education in a lineage doctoral-level program in Nihonga, an ancient Japanese painting style, under Nihonga Master Matazō Kayama.

In 1992, at the age of 32, Fujimura became the youngest artist ever to have a piece acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo.

His work includes "Ki-seki", "Water Flames", "Walking on Water", "Silence", "Columbines", "Golden Sea", "Four Holy Gospels", "Rhapsody", and "Sea Beyond", a collection of paintings using pulverized precious minerals, including gold, platinum, silver, azurite, malachite and cinnabar.

He has collaborated with Susie Ibarra on multiple occasions, and his live painting in 2009 was recorded by Plywood Pictures in "Live in New York: Susie Ibarra + Makoto Fujimura"; his live painting in 2021 was documented by Windrider Productions.

In November 2009, Fujimura's works were coupled with works of Georges Rouault at Dillon Gallery.

Fujimura created several new works in homage to the 20th-century master.

Crossway Publishing commissioned Fujimura in 2009 for The Four Holy Gospels project to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the publishing of the King James Bible.

It was the first time that a single artist has been commissioned to illuminate the four Gospels in nearly five hundred years.

The Four Holy Gospels consist of five major frontispieces, 89 chapter heading letters and over 140 pages of hand illumined pages, all done in traditional Nihonga.

In 2011, Fujimura founded the Fujimura Institute in honor of his father Osamu Fujimura, a renowned scientist.

As the first project, the Fujimura Institute launched the Qu4rtets, a collaboration between Fujimura, painter Bruce Herman, Duke theologian/pianist Jeremy Begbie, and Yale composer Christopher Theofanidis, based on T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets.

The exhibition travelled to Baylor University, Duke University, and Yale University, Hong Kong University, Cambridge University, Gordon College, Roanoke College and other institutions around the globe.

The Gospels were on exhibition at the Museum of Biblical Art in Manhattan, and were on display in Takashimaya, Nihonbashi, Tokyo in 2011.

His 2011 Commencement Address at Belhaven University has been selected by NPR as "Top 200 Commencement Addresses Ever", and in 2021 by CNN as one of 16 top addresses, "From Obama to Steve Jobs: The greatest commencement speeches of all time".

He was the first non-Japanese citizen to be accepted in the Japanese painting doctorate program, which dates back to the 15th century.

Fujimura's works has been exhibited in major museums and galleries around the world, including the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, Israel, the U.K., China, Hong Kong.

The Qu4rtets became the first contemporary art exhibited at the historic King's Chapel in Cambridge, UK, for the Easter of 2015, and was exhibited in Hiroshima for the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings in November 2015.

He is represented in Asia by Artrue International.

His works are in permanent collection at the National Modern Museum of Art in Tokyo, Yokohama Museum of Art, Tokyo University of the Arts Museum, the Saint Louis Museum, the Cincinnati Museum, and the CNN building in Hong Kong, and other museums globally.

In 2016, Fujimura released Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering (IVPress), an autobiographical journey into Shūsaku Endō's Silence.

His public speaking has made the artist notable outside of artistic circles.

Fujimura has given at least five Commencement Addresses, including Judson University address "Kintsugi Generation".

Tikotin Museum in Israel hosted a solo exhibit in 2018 curated by James Elaine.

The Four Holy Gospels original art were exhibited in "Four Holy Gospels Chapel" at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. in 2018.

Fujimura is an author of several books including Art+Faith: A Theology of Making (Yale U. Press, 2021), Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art and Culture (NavPress, 2009), and Culture Care (IVPress, 2020).

His "Twin Rivers of Tamagawa" (Collection of Tokyo University of Art Museum) was included in the Panasonic Museum exhibit "Rouault and Japan" in 2020.

In 2023, Fujimura's exhibition, "A Gaze Traverses Time and Space: Dialogue between Makoto Fujimura and Chinese Ancient Porcelain", at C3M Museum on the Bund in Shanghai, China, featured 17 paintings by Fujimura and 13 pieces of Chinese imperial porcelain.

In October 2023, Fujimura opened an exhibit of his paintings titled "My Bright Abyss: Paintings and Prints" at the Bradford Gallery at St. George's Episcopal Church in Nashville, TN in partnership with Covenant Presbyterian Church (Nashville) and Liturgy Collective.