Macoto Murayama (Kanagawa, 1984) is a Japanese artist who cultivates “inorganic flora” conceived by him.

His extraordinary images are created dissecting real flowers with scalpel and by studying them under the microscope. His drawings are then modeled using 3ds Max (3DCG software), subsequently the separate parts of the flower are “rendered” in order to create a composition in 2D using Adobe Photoshop. 
lastly the artist affixes the measurements on the image, the name of the different parts, the scale, the scientific name etc. right before printing and framing the final result.

The resulting artwork it’s not only the image of a flower, but the representation of the of the intellect’s power and its elaborate tools for scrutinizing nature. The transparency of this work refers not only to the lucid petals of a flower, but to the ambitious, romantic and utopian struggle of science to see and present the world as transparent (completely seen, entirely grasped) object. Paradoxically, this scientific challenge to measure the Universe might eventually become one of the sources where art of Murayama draws its strength of fantasy and odor of romanticism, becoming a part of Botech Art, symbiosis of Botanical Art and Technology.

Macoto Murayama graduated in Spatial Design at Miyagi University in 2007, from 2009 until 2010 he worked as researcher at Media Expression Department of the IAMAS (Institute of Advanced Media Art and Sciences) in Ogaki.

Solo exhibitions

2018 Latent Views, BLOK art space, Istanbul, Turkey

2017 Solo Show, EMA London, UK

2016 Macoto Murayama: growth and form, D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum, Dundee, UK

2015 KOSMOS, Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Berlin, Germany

2014 Botech Compositions, Metal Culture at Edge Hill Station, Liverpool, UK

2011 Inorganic flora, Frantic Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Group exhibitions

2019 Insects: Models for Design, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Tokyo, Japan

2018 Interfacce del Presente, BASE Milano on the occasion of Milano Digital Week 2019, Milan, Italy

2017 Schön vergänglich – Blumen in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, Kallmann-Museum Ismaning, Munich, Germany
On Botany, BLOK art space, Istanbul, Turkey
Calculated Imagination, La Foret Museum, Tokyo, Japan

2016 Meristematic, The Royal Society, London, UK
Eco-Expanded City WRO Biennale, WRO Art Center, Wroclaw, Poland

2015 Heaven and Hell. From magic carpets to drones, Boghossian Foundation at Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium
modell SCHAU, Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Berlin, Germany
Picture Perfect, Viasaterna, Milan, Italy
The Future of Making Things, Autodesk Gallery Pop-up, Tokyo, Japan

2014 CODE-my cosmos / my stories, Japan Media Arts Festival in Aichi, Expo Memorial Park, Aichi, Japan

2013 Design ANY Tokyo, Aoyama CI Plaza, Tokyo, Japan
Group Exhibition, Autodesk Gallery, San-Francisco, USA
Flora Danica ZOOM, Natural History Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark

2012 OUT of FLAT!, Galerie Hengevoss Duerkop, Hamburg, Germany

2010 2010 FRANTIC UNDERLINES, Frantic, Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2009 Exhibition of Objects Under Observation (with Toshitaka Mochizuki), art project frantic, Tokyo, Japan
My Favorite Things, Unseal Contemporary and art project frantic Joint Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan
Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2009, Gyoko-dori Underground Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
PLAYING BACK SURFACEⅡ, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art Civic Gallery, Aichi, Japan
IAMAS 2009, Softopia Japan Center Builiding, Gifu, Japan

2008 OGAKI BIENNALE 2008, Takaya-cho Underpass, Gifu, Japan

Others

2019 CoSTUME NATIONAL, Tokyo, Japan

2016 SHISEIDO｜White Lucent 2017SS

2013 Any Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
solaé art gallery project, Tokyo, Japan

2011 Panasonic Hollywood Labs – Brand Video

Publication

2018 Kyoto Journal
The Botanical Bible
INKQ Edition #4, Inky Leaves Publishing, London, UK
SciArt Magazine

2017 THE UNIVERSE IN YOUR HAND
Terra Meter
Plant: Exploring the Botanical World
P.M.

2015 Patek Philippe

2010 WIRED Magazin
LOW CARBON LEADERS

Awards

2017 Asia Digital Art Award, Asia Digital Art Award/Fukuoka Governor’s Award/The Minister of MEXT Award

2009 Asia Digital Art Award, Grand Prize

2007 11th Japan Media Arts Festival, Jury Selections

Public Collection

Pigozzi Collection, Geneva, Switzerland