NAOKI SUTTER-SHUDO

His latest works emerge from an intuitive process of studio play—composing with forms, blocks, paint, motifs, and signs. From these open-ended beginnings come sculptures in enamelled wood and metal that gradually take on the feel of symbols or silhouettes—figures that stand, lean, or recline with quiet charge. Articulated in structure and graphic in presence, these forms speak in a visual language that is uniquely his own. This grammar extends into his paintings, where gestural layers of brushwork merge with calligraphic letterforms. Across media, Naoki Sutter-Shudo constructs a vocabulary that gives shape to the ineffable—a material grammar for contradictions and what escapes meaning.

Or, in the words of Sabrina Tarasof: “Call it ‘the Naoki sublime’: a laissez-faire romanticism preoccupied with what is concealed, and uncertain, and maybe a little stoned—which is to say, in awe of (or under the influence of) sights, or subjects, that are entirely about appearances, miens, and impressions.”

Born in 1990 in Paris, Naoki Sutter-Shudo lives and works in Los Angeles. Recent solo exhibitions include Gaga & Reena Spaulings, Los Angeles (US), Keijiban, Kanazawa (JP), Derosia, New York (US), Crèvecoeur, Paris (FR), XYZ, Tokyo (JP). Recent group exhibitions include Fondation Vincent Van Gogh Arles (FR), La Salle de Bains, Lyon (FR), Musée d’ArtModerne de la Ville de Paris (FR), FRAC Île-de-France, Paris (FR) and MAMCO Geneva (CH)