Makoto Kojima works at the edge where land gives way to water.

Born in Kanazawa in 1979, Kojima trained first as a potter before turning to painting at the Kyoto City University of Arts. His practice moves freely between pigment, fired clay and salvaged light, but it circles a single subject: the littoral zone — the tide line, the ash field, the horizon that refuses to hold a fixed place.

Working outdoors and over long durations, he builds surfaces in thin geological layers and then sands them back, letting earlier states resurface as a kind of memory. Ash from beach fires is bound into his paint; his ceramic vessels are conceived as instruments for keeping — of weather, of tides, of time that has already passed.

Kojima has exhibited across Japan, the United States and Europe. His work is held in public and private collections including the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. He lives and works between Kyoto and Los Angeles.