Born in 1985 in Aichi, Japan. In her series "The Me Inside Me," children merged with animals give shape to the complex personalities and emotions within a single person. She won the Grand Prize at the Kobe Biennale Painting Art Exhibition. At Jogonin, her cut-out figures stand in the temple's bamboo grove.
Hiroko Sato
Japan
⬤ Works in 2026
The Me Inside Me, in the Bamboo Grove (oil on coated plywood panel, 900 × 900 mm)
⬤ Message
In my series "The Me Inside Me," figures in which animals and children become one express the complex personalities and emotions that a single person holds. The strong will and stubbornness glimpsed through their sweet appearance are the very gap between the "self we show" in society and our "true self." Cut out of plywood and set in the stillness of the bamboo grove, the figures look as if they have stepped out of a thicket of feelings growing inside the heart. As you walk through the bamboo rustling in the wind, meet these cut-out figures, and talk with the honest feelings sleeping deep in your own heart.
⬤ Biography
1985 Born in Aichi, Japan
2012 BFA in Oil Painting, Kyoto City University of Arts
2014 MFA in Oil Painting, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts
2012 Selected, Shell Art Award 2012
2013 Grand Prize, Kobe Biennale Painting Art Exhibition
2015 Jury's Special Prize, Kobe Biennale Painting Art Exhibition
2020 Kaze to Tsuchi no Fureai Art Festival (Iga, Mie), 2020 and 2023
2023 Affordable Art Fair Melbourne 2023 (Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, Australia)
2026 KOBE ART MARCHE 2026 (Kobe)
2026 Infinity Japan Contemporary Art Show 2026 (Taiwan)
2026 Solo exhibition "She wants to be someone else." (ART GALLERY UMEDA, Daimaru Umeda, Osaka)
2026 Solo exhibition "Kyo mo, ashita mo (Today, and Tomorrow Too)" (Art de Art View, Takatsuki, Osaka)