Ataru Sato Biography

Monstrosity, anxiety, and obsession are some of the themes that prevail throughout Ataru Sato's drawing and paintings, which depict often nude figures entangled in disturbing, web-like compositions.

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Early Life

Born in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, Ataru Sato started drawing at a young age. An outsider by nature, Sato's works have not always been well received; they were deemed grim and sombre by his peers, and were hidden from his parents and family, who did not support his art practice.

Encouraged by the rare classmate who complimented his work, Sato continued his art practice at the Kyoto University of Art and Design, where he graduated in 2009.

Ataru Sato Artworks

Ataru Sato's works are marked by a sense of disconnection and alienation, with lone figures surrounded by entrails and bodies incorporated into faces on sombre-hued canvases.

Drawings

Highly detailed and fine-lined, Sato's pencil and ink drawings recover elements from nature and human anatomy to enquire into human existence and its significance.

Early monochrome drawings like First Love (2008) and Maybe Tonight (2012) show close-up portraits made from other bodies, faces, and diverse vegetation, always with eyes open, engaged in reflection or looking out to viewers.

Paintings

Sato started painting at the age of 29 after learning that the surrealist figurative painter Michaël Borremans made the transition to painting at the age of 30. Painting allowed Sato to look at himself objectively, which complemented his introspective drawing practice.

Organs and Veins

Sato's signature colour scheme derives from his days as a student, when he could only afford red, blue, black, and white paints. The selection of colours stuck with the artist over the years, and are vaguely reminiscent of the anatomy books he read as a child, in which organs are highlighted in the same shades.

The same blend of colours can be seen in Untitled breakfast (2018), where a lone figure stands at a table, surrounded by surgical instruments and entangled in a network of red and blue veins, connoting displeasure. A brain rests on the surface in front of him, beside a bottle of wine.

Anxiety and Obsession

Sato's interest in death hints at an equal desire for life. Painted in isolation, macabre reflections take shape across the canvas, peering from one realm into the other.

In self-portrait Rain (2019), a young man is lying on the ground with open eyes, a crimson stream cascading from his nose. The painting was rendered after an experience in the artist's life, following a nosebleed left unattended on a rainy day.

Connection

'I want to connect with others in person, but I also notice it is not easy to associate with people,' the artist notes. The same sense of alienation returns in his day to day, explored across stark compositions that deconstruct the human figure.

Over the rainbow (2019), a mixed-media assemblage on a wooden box, shows two interlaced bodies against an entangled mesh of eyeball-pinching fingers, legs emerging from bright red lips, and brightly coloured mutant plantation—the entirety covered in a yellow and pink web.

Exhibitions

Sato's works have shown in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Select solo exhibitions include KOSAKU KANECHIKA, Tokyo (2020, 2018, 2017); Office Baroque, Brussels (2019); and Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo (2015, 2011).

Selected group exhibitions include Ruttkowski;68, Paris (2021); Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2019); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2014); Espace Louis Vuitton, Tokyo (2012); Yokohama Triennale (2011); 8th Gwangju Biennale (2010); The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo (2010); and Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (2009).

Elaine YJ Zheng | Ocula | 2021

Ataru Sato
featured artworks

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Human 07 by Ataru Sato contemporary artwork painting, mixed media
Ataru Sato Human 07, 2022 Acrylic on paper
45.4 x 39 cm
KOSAKU KANECHIKA Request Price & Availability
First Love 2 by Ataru Sato contemporary artwork painting
Ataru Sato First Love 2, 2024 Oil on canvas
25 x 25 cm
KOSAKU KANECHIKA Request Price & Availability
Joy by Ataru Sato contemporary artwork painting
Ataru Sato Joy, 2023 Oil on canvas
30.4 x 30.2 cm
KOSAKU KANECHIKA Request Price & Availability
Two seconds by Ataru Sato contemporary artwork drawing
Ataru Sato Two seconds, 2023 Pencil, ink on paper and paper collage mounted on panel
65.5 x 53 cm
KOSAKU KANECHIKA Request Price & Availability
Emptiness by Ataru Sato contemporary artwork painting
Ataru Sato Emptiness, 2023 Acrylic, oil on canvas
45.5 x 45.5 cm
KOSAKU KANECHIKA Request Price & Availability
Daily life by Ataru Sato contemporary artwork painting
Ataru Sato Daily life, 2023 Acrylic, oil on canvas
33.5 x 24.3 cm
KOSAKU KANECHIKA Request Price & Availability
But if you came with me by Ataru Sato contemporary artwork painting
Ataru Sato But if you came with me, 2023 Oil on canvas
30 x 30 cm
KOSAKU KANECHIKA Request Price & Availability
Dream by Ataru Sato contemporary artwork painting
Ataru Sato Dream, 2023 Acrylic on cloth mounted on panel
30 x 30 cm
KOSAKU KANECHIKA Request Price & Availability
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Ataru Sato
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