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bio

STATEMENT

     My artworks reflect issues of environment, ecology, science, world history, peace and conflict, and popular culture. Symbolism and narrative provide a conceptual platform for me.  Models, toys and games from childhood often appear in my works. They emerge out of my memory of this time in my life and give me initial inspiration to make something.  This makes my work somewhat autobiographical.  I would like to explore now what wasn’t possible for me then. This innocent point of departure allows me to get at the heart of more current topics and adult concerns while simultaneously telling a loosely autobiographical, fictional story.

 

BIOGRAPHY

     Hiro Sakaguchi was born in Nagano, Japan and grew up in Chiba City, near Tokyo.  He was born as a twin. He moved to the United States in the 1990’s to study art at the University of the Arts (BFA) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (MFA).   He currently has a studio and resides in Lansdowne, a close suburb of Philadelphia, PA.

     Sakaguchi has had numerous solo and group exhibitions, having shown at various venues internationally such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Secession Museum, Austria, the Mori Museum, Tokyo, and the KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland.  Sakaguchi has also exhibited at PULSE art fair in Miami and at the Melbourne Art Fair in Australia, both with Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo.

     In 2011 Sakaguchi exhibited his first museum solo show, No Particular Place to Go, at the Morris Gallery of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His 2014 / 2015 solo exhibition, Avert, Escape or Cope With, at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art was reviewed in ART NEWS, June 2015.  In 2015 Sakaguchi exhibited a two-person show at Nancy Margolis Gallery, NYC, alongside Anne Canfield.  In 2019, he participated in the Philadelphia Fine Art Fair through Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia.

     Artworks by Hiro Sakaguchi can be found in both public and private collections internationally including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia.  He has representation at Seraphin Gallery in Philadelphia, Galerie Heubner & Heubner in Frankfurt, and Nancy Margolis Gallery in New York.

CV

Hiro Sakaguchi

b. 1965  Nagano, Japan

 

SELECTED SOLO & TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2016  Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, Thymine, Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2015  Anne Canfield / Hiro Sakaguchi, Nancy Margolis Gallery,  New York, NY

2014  Avert, Escape or Cope With, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington, DE, Maiza Hixson curator

2013  Vapor Trail of Debris, Galerie Hübner and Hübner, Frankfurt, Germany

2012  Two Zero One Two, Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2011  No Particular Place to Go, Morris Gallery, PAFA American Museum, Philadelphia,  PA  Julien Robson, curator

2010  No Place Is Strange, Galerie Hübner and Hübner, Frankfurt, Germany

2009  Idle Daydreams, Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2007  Traveler’s Tale, Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2007  Christopher Hartshorne & Hiro Sakaguchi, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA

2006  Away, The Center for Emerging Visual Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2004  ESORAGOTO (Untrue like in painting), Challenge Exhibition, Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA

2000  I paint, Nexus Foundation for Today’s Art, Philadelphia, PA   

1997  Cities on the Move, T. Ozawa’s Project, Nasubi Gallery, Wiener Secession, Austria

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBTIONS

2019  Your Plus-One, MAC celebrates 10 years, Mount Airy Contemporary, Philadelphia, PA

2019  Hiro Sakaguchi presented by Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia Fine Art Fair,  Booth 125, Philadelphia, PA

2018  Small Talk, Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA  curator, Alyssa Laverda & Ashley Stahl co-curators

2017  Uncompromising Vision, Cerulean Arts, Philadelphia, PA 

2017  A Perfect Union, Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia, PA   Dave Kyu, curator

2016-17  Gallery Artists: Pre-Christmas Exhibition, Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York, NY

2016  20, Cerulean Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2016  Beyond Cold Polished Stones, 2020 House Gallery, Lansdowne PA   Anthony Campuzano, curator

2016  All You Need is Paper, Artspace 1241, Philadelphia, PA   Nancy Sophy, curator

2016  MORE or LESS, Nancy Margolis Gallery, NY, NY

2015  Peculiar Velocity,  Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, David Dempewolf, curator

2015  Debris, Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA   organized by Hiro Sakaguchi

2014  Hans Ulrich Orbist’s “Do it”, The Galleries at the Moore, Philadelphia, PA  Katie Johnson, curator

2014  A(rt)vocation, Project Space DE, Wilmington, DE  Margaret Winslow curator

2014  Flowering, Nancy Margolis Gallery, NY, NY

2014  Drawing Now Philadelphia, Art Space Liberti, Philadelphia, PA  Sabina Tichindeleanu, Emilie Keim Viss, curators

2014  Compulsive Narratives: Stories that MUST be Told, Stedman Gallery at Rutgers, Camden, NJ,  Cheryl Harper, curator

2013  cutlog New York, The Clemente, with Galerie Hübner and Hübner, NY, NY

2013  Centenial Juried Exhibtion, Delaware Museum of Art, Wilmington, DE,  John B. Ravenal curator

2012  All Together Now, Window on Race Gallery, Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, PA  Kaytie Johnson curator

2012  Just Like Honey,  Air Sweet Air, Saint Paul, MN  Cheryl Wilgren curator

2012  Haunting Narratives: Detours from Philadelphia Realism, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA  Matthew Palczynski, curator

2012  New Fiction, New Wilmington Art Association, Wilmington, DE  Brookes Britcher, curator

2012  Museum Show 1, ALNOLFINI, T. Ozawa’s Project, Nasubi Gallery Bristol, UK

2012  volcano / kaboom: Hiro Sakaguchi, Serena Perrone and Alina Josan, Lawrence Gallery, Rosemont Collage, Rosemont, PA

2010  Inscrutable, Asian Arts Initiative & UD at Crane gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2010  Philadelphia Painters, The Painting Center, NY, NY Matthew Farina, curator

2009  Landschaft, Galerie Hübner and Hübner, Frankfurt, Germany

2008  PULSE MIAMI, Miami, FL with Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2008  Fantastical  Imaginings, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE Susan Isaacs, curator,

2008  Global Suburbia, Abington Art Center, Philadelphia, PA  Sue Spaid, curator

2008  Sense of Place, Gallery Joe, Philadelphia, PA

2008  Emerging to Established, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

2008  Useless Weapon, Green Lantern, Chicago, IL

2007  Drawnwork,  Littman Gallery, Portland, OR

2006  Works on Paper 2006, Arcadia University Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Cornelia Butler, juror

2006  Since 1994, Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2004  Answer with Yes and No, T. Ozawa Exhibit, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan     

2004  Kotatsu-ha 2, Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan  Makoto Aida, curator

2004  Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne, Australia with Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan       

2004  Creative Artists Network at The West Collection, SEI, Oaks, PA

1999  Cities on the Move, Nasubi Gallery, KIASMA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland

1997  Kotatsu-ism, Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan  Makoto Aida, curator

 

ACHIEVEMENTS, AWARDS, RECOGNITIONS

2019: Visiting Artist, Rowan University College of Communication and Creative Arts

2019  Recipient:  Faculty Venture Fund, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

2019  Jurer: Alumni Gallery Exhibitions, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

2013  Nominee: Pew Fellowship in the Arts, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage

2012  Selected Panelist: Van Gogh Up Close, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, with Joe Rishel, Zoe Strauss, and Emily Brown

2010  Nominee: Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant

2008  Selected Panelist: Beyond Super-Flat, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, with Nami Yamamoto and Keiko Miyamori

2006  Featured Artist/Curator: Creatively Speaking, WRTI radio interview with Jim Cotter, discussing the Picture Journal Project, Philadelphia, PA

2005  Recipient: The Alumni Travel Grant, Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Philadelphia, PA

2004  Recipient: The Choice of Award, City Paper, Philadelphia, PA         

2004  Recipient: Fleisher Challenge, Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA

1998  Selected Panelist: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA  Featuring RIKRIT  TIRAVANIJA

 

MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

 

CURATORIAL PROJECTS

2010  I Can’t Get You Out of My Mind, Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2010  Caution Art in Here, Cerulean Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2009  My Dog Speaks, Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2008  Useless Weapon, Green Lantern Gallery, Chicago, IL

2006  Picture Journal Project, Center For Emerging Visual Artists, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA

 

EDUCATION

1996  MFA  Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

1993  BFA  The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

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