Kotaro Machiyama is a Japan-born painter and illustrator. Central to his work are two principles: the desire to get closer to an object and the process of thinking about this object in another time than the present.

The first is a basic principle of attraction: the feeling of wanting to do something or to get closer to an object or to draw something because it is perceived as cool or beautiful.  

For the second principle, "thinking about it in a time frame other than the present," the artist enters into a process where he reinterprets the object and renders it on a flat surface. The process of composition, the extraction of colors, and their subsequent reconstruction helps him to detach the object from everyday life and to start thinking of it in a manner that is out of the ordinary. The result is a creation that is perhaps more confusing than comprehensible - that extracts the viewer from their standard frame of reference and forces them to think differently.

"In our busy, everyday lives, we often can't think this way, but it's like how you are transported when you think about a favorite place, movie, or music - I believe this artistic process does something similar."

Machiyama's bold and colourful abstract artworks have been awarded multiple prizes and exhibited across numerous renowned galleries in Japan and South Korea. The artist currently lives and works in Tokyo, Japan.