The indeterminate nature of forms and structures that are ambiguous and shifting, ever re-defining themselves; this is an important aspect of Nao Matsunaga's work. As he has said; "I am interested in creating or capturing movement in a still object". Japanese-born, Nao studied at Brighton University and the Royal College of Art, giving him a richly interdisciplinary knowledge of materials, a freedom to stretch our perception of how something can look, and how it can feel. It is an art about the texture of shapes as well as surfaces, and how these may interact; "I am interested in exploring tensions such as raw and controlled, still and speed, weight and weightlessness in my work".

A soft amorphism often combining with knottier harder elements, Nao's liberations extend into expansive surface marking, objects that are as much about painting as sculpture. Some of his pieces have a loosely ceremonial or ritual aspect, some touch on figuration, others are purely abstract, but his very direct approach makes us think afresh about the endless possibilities and mysteries of, as Brancusi put it, "reanimated matter".

David Whiting