Statement
I compose landscapes by sourcing inorganic elements from art histories and visual cultures from East and West, especially from landscape, to explore the connection between land, geology, nature, and collective identity.
My educational background in Japanese Painting, - “Japanese paintings/Nihonga” is from the late 19th century onward, created with traditional materials and techniques. The term created to distinguish these works from Western-style paintings/Yoga, after Japan’s modernization-, prompted me to question the relationship between a style of painting and forming a national identity. I learned that Japanese Painting stemmed from the fabrication of tradition in the modern era. As discussed in the book The Invention of Tradition, edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, traditions that appear to rise from the ancient past are often invented in contemporary times by identifiable individuals, typically to create national identity and legitimize nation-states in the 19th century. Critical of the operative production of Japanese Painting, I form parallels in the relationship between cultural elements and the invention of tradition, like a chimaera.
In my recent work, I’ve been concerned with the historical and aesthetic utility of landscape painting in formulating the concept of the nation or “homeland.” By mimicking the processes of this style of painting, I create a counterpoint to the “national landscape” by creating a “universal landscape” in order to emphasize how both formations of landscape are constructions of imagination. The “universal landscape” is commonly conceived in myths regarding the origins of the universe, from Japanese mythology that describes the creation of the Japanese archipelago from nothingness to the Bible that narrates God’s creation of the world from a void, bringing light into existence. My works return to these origin stories, that tie place and landscape to the construction of identity, to address questions about who we are and why we belong.
These scenes of landscape, that precede the era of life, use inorganic motifs (such as light, water, rock, and air) to represent moments before a distinct national identity or narrative can be formed through the land. In this sense, I’m revealing the fabrication of identity, from the broad construction of nation-states as it relates to the individual.
And, through the assemblage of aesthetic influences of nature from various art historical contexts. such as "The Wave" by Gustave Courbet, Asian ink brush water mountain scenery, and cloud effects in animation—I reflect on the tendency of Japanese painting to emphasize nature, or “naturalness,” from the depiction of subjects to the usage of materials. As tradition artificially fabricates identity or legitimacy by looking to natural forms, humans have manipulated “nature” to our will, assigning various values and functions, political or otherwise. In my work painting, I incorporate toy-like elements through, clouds, light, and disharmonies in the landscape to reveal the artificial manipulation of nature and blur the boundaries between artificiality and naturalness.
「日本画」とは何か、国という想像の共同体のために作られた絵画の呼称/物語、についての模索をきっかけに、私は場所/風景/土地についてのアイデンティティの物語がどのように作られてきたのかを探求するため、世界の起源を語る神話に「共通するであろう風景」を想像し描いています。日本神話の一場面は、何もないところから日本列島が誕生するまでを物語っています。聖書では、神が無から世界を創造し、そこに光を入れ始めたときの風景が描かれています。また、地球が約46億年前、微惑星の衝突と合体を経て形成されたというような科学的な説明も含め、こうした世界創造の物語が、社会のアイデンティティを正当化すように機能し、土地と人々の結びつきを説明するという側面に興味があります。発祥の物語は私たちが何者で、なぜこの土地に属しているのかという問いに答えを与えてくれます。しかし、誰も始まりの風景をその目で見たことはありません。そこで私は人間や生命が誕生する以前、無の一歩先の風景を光、水、岩石、空気などの無機的なモチーフによって描きます。共同体の物語が固有のアイデンティティとなる前の場面を描くことで、「普遍的な風景」を創造しようと試みています。
Bio
Sao Tanaka (b. Tokyo Japan) is currently based New York City. She hold a BFA in Japanese painting from Tama Art University, an MA in sociology and cultural anthropology from Hitotsubashi University, and studied at the School of Visual Arts. Her works have been internationally exhibited including at Mizuma & Kips Gallery in New York, Bunkamura Gallery in Tokyo , Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, in Hiroshima. Tanaka has received the Fellowship of the Pola Art Foundation Overseas Study Programme, the Hiraizumi Curator Jury Prize, SHIBUYA ART AWARDS 2019, Winning Selection Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art "Open Call for Art Project Ideas 2018, and the Grand Prize at the 5th 21st Century Asia Design Competition from Kyoto University of Art.
CV
2021 MPS Digital Photography, School of Visual Arts, New York (Transferred from MFA Fine Art)
2017 MA Sociology, Graduate School of Social Sciences, Institute for the Study of Global Issues, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo
2014 BFA Painting, Department of Painting Japanese Painting course, Tama Art University, Tokyo
Solo Exhibition
2022 ” MELD GOLD” Mizuma&Kips Gallery, New York
Group Exhibition
2023 “Echoes From New York” Lurf MUSEUM, Group exhibition Tokyo, Japan
2022 “Newtopia,” Mizuma &Kips Gallery, Group exhibition, New York, USA
2021 “Recalled” MPS Digital Photography Graduate exhibition, SVA Gramercy Gallery, New York, USA
2021 “Tamabi DNA - A Genealogy of Contemporary Nihonga, Japanese Painting 1965”, Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo
2021 “Within Sight,” Mizuma &Kips Gallery, Group exhibition, New York, USA
2020 ASYAAF 2020, Overseas Artists Section, presented by Gallery LVS, Seoul, Korea
2019 “SHIBUYA AWARD 2019 Award exhibition”, Bunkamura Gallery, Tokyo, Japan.
2018 “Genbi Dokodemo Kikaku Kobo 2018 (Open Call for Art Project Ideas 2018) winning selection exhibition”, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan
Art Fair
2023 Art Miami 2023, Mizuma Art Gallery
2020 ASYAAF 2020, Overseas Artists Section, Gallery LVS, Seoul, Korea
Commission Work
2023 Farm to Me, Tokyo, Japan
2020 Mitsui Garden Hotel Roppongi Tokyo Premier BALCON TOKYO, Tokyo, Japan
Award/Grant
2024 The Pola Art Foundation Fellowships and Research Grants (USA)
2019 Hiraizumi Curator Jury Prize, SHIBUYA ART AWARDS 2019 (Hosted by SHIBUYA AWARDS ASSOCIATION in Tokyo)
2019 MFA Fine Arts Scholarship, School of Visual Arts in New York 2018 Winning Selection Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art “Open Call for Art Project Ideas 2018” (Hosted by Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art in Hiroshima.)
2005 Grand Prize The 5th 21 Century Asia Design Competition (Hosted by Kyoto University of Art in Kyoto)
2004 Winning Selection The 4th 21 Century Asia Design Competition (Hosted by Kyoto University of Art in Kyoto)
Artist In Residency
2024 The New York Residency & Studio (NARS) Foundation Season Ⅲ&Ⅳ 2024
2023 Sakia Art Residency Awaji island Japan
2014 多摩美術大学美術学部絵画日本画卒業
2017 一橋大学社会学研究科地球社会専攻修了
2021 School of Visual Art Digital Photography 修了
受賞/助成
2024 ポーラ美術振興財団在外研修員（アメリカ）
2019 第6回SHIBUYA AWARD 平泉千枝賞
2019 MFA Fine Arts Scholarship, School of Visual Arts in New York
2018 ゲンビどこでも企画公募２０１８ 広島市現代美術館
2005 第5回２１世紀アジアデザインコンペ大賞受賞 京都芸術大学
個展
2022 ”MELD GOLD” Mizuma&Kips Gallery, ニューヨーク
グループ展
2023 ”Echoes From New York”, Lurf MUSEUM, 東京
2022 ”Newtopia”, Mizuma & Kips Gallery, ニューヨーク
2021 “Recalled”, MPS Digital Photography Graduate SVA Gramercy Gallery, ニューヨーク
2021 現代日本画の系譜－タマビDNA展,多摩美術大学美術館, アートテークギャラリー東京
2021 “Within Sight” Mizuma & Kips Gallery, ニューヨーク
2020 ”ASYAAF 2020 Overseas Artists Section”, Gallery LVS, ソウル
2019 SHIBUYA AWARDS 2019 ART部門受賞作品巡回展, Bunkamura Gallery
2018 どこでもゲンビ企画公募入選作品展, 広島市現代美術館, 広島
コミッションワーク
2023 Farm to Me 3階レストラン 作品制作
2020 三井ガーデンホテル六本木プレミアBALCON TOKYO 壁画制作
アーティスト イン レジデンシー
2024 The New York Residency & Studio (NARS) Foundation Season Ⅲ&Ⅳ 2024
2023 Sakia Art Residency Awaji island Japan