For Ataru Sato, drawing and painting are tools to chronicle and interpret the complexity of human life around him, exploring personal themes in strikingly honest and at times provocative imagery. He sees art as being created by people who are alive to express their lived experiences and has no aspiration to create art for art’s sake, art that is novel, or art that seeks to be meaningful. Sato refuses to shy away from fantasies, shame, loneliness, pain, or indulgences, matters that are typically considered indecent or immoral but are nonetheless integral aspects of the psyche. He opens a direct portal into a psychological investigation of his lived experience.
Ataru Sato was born in Chiba Prefecture in 1986 and is currently based in Tokyo, Japan. In 2009, he graduated from the Advanced Art Course in the Department of Information Design, Faculty of Arts and Design at Kyoto University of Arts and Design. In addition to his 2011 and 2015 solo exhibitions at Gallery Koyanagi, the artist has also held shows in cities such as New York and Brussels. The artist’s major group exhibitions include “10,000 Lives: The Eighth Gwangju Biennale” (Gwangju, 2010), “Yokohama Triennale 2011: OUR MAGIC HOUR – How Much of the World Can We Know?” (Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa, 2011), “Inside” (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2014), “INTERPRETATIONS, TOKYO” (Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2019), “DOJIMA RIVER BIENNALE 2019” (DOJIMA RIVER FORUM, Osaka, 2019), “LA MORSURE DES TERMITES” (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2023) and “A Personal View of Contemporary Art: Takahashi Ryutaro Collection” (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2024). Sato’s works have been acquired by the J Art Foundation, the Japigozzi Collection, the Takahashi Ryutaro Collection, and Louis Vuitton Malletier.
