HAJIME SORAYAMA

Early Years

Hajime Sorayama was born in 1947 in Imabari. His father was a carpenter and his mother sewed, but he was attracted to metal, lingering at the ironworks after school so he could look at the lathes. He remembers being complimented on his drawing as a child, and he had many career ambitions, including becoming a pilot and a swordsmith. He attended Shikoku Gakuin University (accounts vary as to whether he graduated or was expelled) then enrolled at Chuo Art School in Tokyo. He worked in an advertising agency before becoming a freelance illustrator in 1972.

Hajime Sorayama: Artworks

Sorayama’s superrealist style exudes photo-like precision, and the ongoing use of metallic sheen. Across sculpture, painting and detailed illustrations, he uses light, shadow and reflection to bring his creations to life. The artist has been fascinated by the reflection of light on metal since childhood and continues this obsession into his artistic practice, working out how to express light and transparency through technically precise pieces.

• Sorayama’s first robot painting appeared in 1978, not as the intentional start to a creative journey but as part of an assignment for the Suntory whisky brand. The drinks company wanted to capitalise on the popularity of Star Wars by using C-3PO in its advert, but couldn’t get the rights, so Sorayama drew an alternative.
• In 2018’s Untitled, a large acrylic-on-board work, a female robot figure poses, knees bent, head turned towards the viewer, “The Cambrian Explosion” engraved on her thigh. She appears to be underwater, co-existing with reflective sea creatures, one touching her nipple and the other her butt cheek.
• The 2023 diptych Untitled (shown at the _I, Robot) exhibition in 2024) combines acrylic paint and digital print. A gold robot, lasers emerging from her cheeks and one hand on a nipple, takes up space on both panels, the top sharply detailed, the bottom blurring into a watery pool.

Hajime Sorayama: Select Exhibitions

Select Solo Exhibitions

• Light, Reflection, Transparency, Creative Museum Tokyo (2026)
• Hajime Sorayama, W1 Curates, London (2025)
• Light, Reflection, Transparency, Nanzuka Art Institute, Shanghai (2025) (and touring China)
• Desire Machines, Museum of Sex Miami (2024)
• Post Human, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles (2024)
• I, Robot, Almine Rech, London (2024)
• Space Travellers, CICA Vancouver (2023)
• Cyber Ladies’ World, Almine Rech, Paris (2022)
• Dinosauria, Nanzuka 2G, Tokyo (2021)
• Trex, Nanzuka 2G, Tokyo (2020)
• Editions, Aishonanzuka, Hong Kong (2018)
• Sawasdee Sexy Robot by Hajime Sorayama, EchoOne ArtSpace, Bangkok (2017)
• Sorayama, Jacob Lewis Gallery, New York City (2016)
• Hajime Sorayama—Print Show, Fifty24SF Gallery, San Francisco (2015)
• Neo Discipline, Span Art Gallery, Tokyo (2011)
• Opera Gallery, New York City (2008)
• Hajime Sorayama: The Exhibition, Ginza Graphic Gallery, Tokyo (2003) (and touring)
• ECR, Cologne (1998)

Select Group Exhibitions

• Tom’s Stretch, David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2026)
• Ex Machina Galactica,” Vanilla Gallery, Tokyo (2026)
• Post Human, Jefrrey Deitch (2025)
• Humanoid, Span Art Gallery, Tokyo (2025)
• Modern Times in Paris 1925: Art and Design in the Machine Age, Pola Museum of Art, Kanagawa (2023)
• Mickey Mouse Now and Future, Parco Museum, Tokyo (2021)
• Cool Japan, Tropen Museum, Amsterdam (2018)
• It’s a Sony, Sony Building, Tokyo (2016)
• Leather Japan, New York City (2014)
• Cosmic Fusion III, O Museum, Tokyo (2012)
• The ObsessionArt Fifth Anniversary Exhibition, The Gallery in Cork Street, Lonodn (2012)
• Code: Erotica, Bunkamura, Tokyo (2010)
• Winter Invitational, Art At Large, New York City (2005)

Further Reading

• Artist profile page at Nanzuka Gallery
• 2023 interview in The Talks
• 2026 interview in Tokyo Weekender
• Conversation in The New Order magazine (2023)

Hajime Sorayama FAQs

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