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