Hara Museum of Contemporary Art

January 23 – May 8, 2016

Hours: 11:00 am – 5:00 pm, Wednesdays until 8:00 pm (except national holiday, last entry 30 minutes before closing)

Closed: Mondays (except March 21), March 22

The Hara Documents is an exhibition series which introduces young up-and-coming artists. In this tenth installment, we are proud to present Masaharu Sato: Tokyo Trace. Sato creates a unique kind of animation by meticulously and precisely tracing actual video footage with a software pen. The results of this time-consuming, seemingly pointless process are sketch-like animations that diverge from reality in a unique and exciting way. Sato perfected this method in his previous work Calling (2009-2010) which drew much attention in Japan. This animation and his newest work Tokyo Trace (2015-2016), which “follows” (i.e., “traces”) present-day Tokyo, comprise the centerpieces of the exhibition.

Masaharu Sato

1973 Born in Oita, Japan in 1973. Received an M.F.A. in painting at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1999. Studied sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany from 2000 to 2002. Received the Special Award at the 12th Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art in 2009. Held a solo exhibition at the Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa in 2013. Participated in The 6th DANDANS at No Man’s Land, group exhibition at the former building of French Embassy, Tokyo in 2010 and Duality of Existence – Post Fukushima exhibition at Friedman Benda, New York in 2014. Sato currently resides in Toride, Ibaraki prefecture.