This is Sakamoto’s return to Art Front after a two-year hiatus, with his last private exhibit at the then Art Front Graphics being “Beautiful Drifter,” held in 2008.

This year, private exhibitions in Tokyo have featured motifs that are different from what we have seen before, such as ripples, for example. We are catching glimpses of a new direction, as witnessed in an exhibit in Kofu where the entire surface of a large building was made use of. Consistent with this is the creation of unique landscapes that are free of human subject, inorganic and make the viewer sense air and space.

Sakamoto’s landscapes do not feature spectacles such as traffic crossings, playgrounds, amusement parks or pigeons in a park. They are full of the ordinary and everyday, straightforward, and, as the title suggests, even “lazy.” His works do not depict stereotypical scenes that could exist anywhere, and it is difficult to pinpoint their when and where, making the viewer feel a laziness - of time prolonged. Sakamoto's works also startle the viewer, resonating memories of seeing the scene before, like deja vu. Despite Sakamoto’s works being very modern, depicting everyday things in our contemporary lives rather than the freedom and spontaneity of nature, he does not make us feel gloomy. Is this because of his emphasis on objects that show the continuity and space of what is not depicted, such as wide, open skies and power lines, roads and river banks that appear to stretch on forever? The traffic lights and streets created by humans seem small within this expanse.

At this new exhibition, viewers will be able to experience startling moments, of the ordinary and non-ordinary intersecting.

Tokuro Sakamoto
1975　born in Yamanashi
1999 graduated from Tokyo University of Arts (Department of Japanese Painting)

Selected solo exhibitions
2010　 Glance, Gallery Sakuranoki, Tokyo
2010 Daily Life 2, Gallery Innocent, Yamanashi
2009　 Sakamoto Tokuro, Kidopress, Tokyo
2009　　Sakamoto Tokuro2001-2009, Gallery Sakuranoki in Karuizawa, Nagano
2009 Resonance, Gallery Momo, Tokyo
2008　　Beautiful Drifter, Art Front Gallery, Tokyo
2008　　Endless Holiday, Shinseido-Hatanaka Art Gallery, Tokyo
2007　　Breathing, Gallery MoMo, Tokyo
2001　　solo exhibition,　Gallery Yamaguchi, Tokyo (’02, ’03)

Selected Group Exhibitions
2008 New Collection, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamanashi
2008 VOCA2008, The Ueno Royal Museum of Art, Tokyo
2007　 Sennen-no Kai, Onward Gallery Nihonbashi, Tokyo
2007　　Last Scene, Gallery Gotoh, Tokyo 　
2006 New Collection, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamanashi
2006　　Sound of Silence, Gallery Art Point, Tokyo
2006　　Star of Millennium, Art Forum in Ikebukuro Seibu and others
2006　　3rd Higashiyama Kaii Memorial Award for Japanese Painting, Hotel New Otani, Tokyo
2005 Tokyo Wonder Wall2005, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
2004　　Shell Art Award, Hillside Forum, Tokyo
2003　　Liquitex Biennale, Spiral Garden, Tokyo
2003　　Gunma Biennale of Youth’03, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma
2002　　21th　Outstanding Rising Artists’Exhibition, Yasuda Insurance Art Foundation, Tokyo
2002 20th Graphic Art, Hitotsubo Exhibition, Guardian Garden, Tokyo
2001　　Shell Art Award, Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo
2001 Shinsei Exhibition, Shinseido-Hatanaka Art Gallery, Tokyo

Public Collection: Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art

* The text provided by ART FRONT GALLERY.

Opened dates: December 4 - 26, 2010
Venue: ART FRONT GALLERY