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Artists > OKUBO Saya

大久保 紗也

1992 Born in FUKUOKA

2015 Kyoto University of Art and Design (currently Kyoto University of the Arts), Bachelor’s degree, Oil Painting

2017 Kyoto University of Art and Design (currently Kyoto University of the Arts), Master’s degree, Oil Painting

STATEMENT

Making paintings is the act of exploring how we perceive images and their contradictions and discrepancies within the shallow space of a flat surface.

The actions and poses of the people I use as motifs bring with them the sociality and narratives behind them.

One cannot act without being subject to the influence of others, or in the absence of relationships. A single action lies at the end of a series of acts that lead from the past to the present. Just as a single line in a drawing reveals something about the artist’s physicality and habits of thought, a painting cannot really escape narrative.

The process of making a painting begins with lines, drawn using pen and pencil on paper. The lines of these drawings connect me and the motif through an act initiated by my body. Detached from precision by the quick drawing process, these outlines are abstracted and broken down, preventing the motif from being properly recognized and pulling it out of the context (narrative) that is connected to its background.

This stripped motif then enters into individual associations with new outlines, while the textures and colors of the freely scattered paint approach and then distance themselves from the viewer’s sensations and memories of the landscape.

While the work attempts to form an image, it is disintegrating at the same time.

The relationship between the motifs and myself, which often contains contradictions and discrepancies, is connected to the mistakes and inability to understand each other that are bound to occur in our human relationships, and to our acceptance of them.

Solo Exhibitions

2025

Is that snake, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan

project N 99 Okubo Saya, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2024

Replicas that tell a story, Kyoto TSUTAYA BOOKS 6F Gallery, Kyoto, Japan

Leitmotiv, Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Honten, MITSUKOSHI CONTEMPORARY GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan

2022
Box of moonlight, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan

The mirror crack’d from side to side, Roppongi Hills A/D Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

We are defenseless. / We are aggressive., Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Honten, MITSUKOSHI CONTEMPORARY GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan

2020
They, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan

2018
a doubtful reply, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan

Group Exhibitions

2025

To Sway and Surround : Japanese Female Abstraction, Each Modern, Taipei, Taiwan

2024

collection #08, rin art association, Gunma, Japan

SPRING SHOW, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan

RE: FACTORY_2, WALL_alternative, Tokyo, Japan

2023

“The lens within your heart” from the TAKEUCHI COLLECTION, WHAT MUSEUM 2F, Tokyo, Japan SPRING SHOW, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan 

2022

SPRING SHOW, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan 

2021

Viewing Room Exhibition, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan

2020

10TH, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan Viewing Room Exhibition, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan

2019

Island with ONI, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan

2017

NEWSPACE, WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, Japan

The 4th CAF Award - Winning Award Exhibition, Daikanyama Hillside Forum, Tokyo, Japan

Art Students Exhibition 2017, SEZON ART GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan

Kyoto University of Art and Design Master’s Degree Show, Kyoto University of Art and Design Galerie Aube, Kyoto, Japan

2016

movement 2016 {1st movement}, ARTZONE, Kyoto, Japan SPERT2016, Galerie Aube, Kyoto, Japan

2015

HERE I AM KUAD×TUNA Exchange Exhibition, Na pai Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

HOP2015, Galerie Aube, Kyoto, Japan Kyoto University of Art and Design Bachelor’s Degree Show, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Kyoto, Japan

Art Fairs

2024

Art Fair Tokyo 2024, Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan [Solo]

MEET YOUR ARTISTS, Warehouse TERADA B&C HALL, Tokyo, Japan [Group]

2021

Art Collaboration Kyoto, Kyoto International Conference Center, Kyoto, Japan [Group]

ART FAIR TOKYO 2021, Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan [Group]

2019

ART FAIR TOKYO 2019, Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan [Group]

Award

2017 The 4th CAF Award, Masami Shiraishi Award

Official website

Official Instagram

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