Makabe Rikuji

Yusuke Makabe (b. 1971, Ishikawa, Japan) is a Japanese painter based in Kanazawa. Working across painting, mural interventions, and site specific installations, his practice explores the relationship between nature, memory, spirituality, and the passage of time.

After graduating from Tama Art University, Makabe initially worked with traditional canvas painting before turning to wood as his primary support. Embracing the material's natural texture and history, he developed a distinctive visual language in which trees, forests, and landscapes become meditations on life, death, and cultural memory. Since 2008, he has expanded this practice through large scale mural paintings that engage directly with architecture and the surrounding environment, allowing landscape, light, and weather to become integral elements of the work.

Drawing upon the traditions of Japanese painting while embracing a contemporary sensibility, Makabe constructs layered compositions in which finely painted trees dissolve into abstract fields and intricate networks of human forms. His works evoke the invisible forces that connect humanity and nature, offering poetic reflections on the mystery of existence, the coexistence of cultures, and the continuity between the visible and the unseen. His work has been exhibited throughout Japan and internationally, including major site specific projects in China and exhibitions at the Kurobe City Art Museum, Toyama.