Born in 1957, Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan.
Lives and Works in Omiya, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
EDUCATION
1983 BFA, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (Sculpture Course)
1981 MFA, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (Sculpture Course)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010
Trees, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Trees, Leslie Tonkonow, New York, NY
Presence or Absence: The Photographs of Tokihiro Sato, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN
2009
Respiration, Dandeli Art Space, Beijing, China
2008
Tokihiro Sato, Fukushima City Museum Of Photography, Fukushima, Japan
2007
Photo-Respiration, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Gleaning Light, Gallery RAKU, Kyoto, Japan
2006
Contemporary Japanese Photography, Tai Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Photo-Respiration, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
2005
“Gleaning Light,” Leslie Tonkonow, New York, NY
“Tokihiro Sato: Photographic Light Panels,” Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
2004
The Museum of Modern Art Saitama, Japan
Camera Obscura Project, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Japan
2003
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
2001
Gallery Gan, Tokyo
2000
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
1999
The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan (2-person show)
Asian Art Biennale, Bangladesh (2-person show)
Sakata City Museum of Art, Yamagata, Japan
Gallery GAN, Tokyo
1998
Leslie Tonkonow Art works + Projects, New York
1997
Gallery GAN, Tokyo
1996
Gallery GAN, Tokyo
Gallery Natsuka, Tokyo
1995
Gallery Lunami, Tokyo
Gallery Nikko, Tokyo
1993
Gallery Surge, Tokyo
Jacobins, Museum of Fine Art, Agen, France
Spiral Garden, Tokyo
1992
Gallery Hosomi, Tokyo
Gallery Moris, Tokyo
Gallery Valentine, Nagano
Gallery Temporary Space #022, Sapporo
1991
Gallery Lunami, Tokyo
Gallery Surge, Tokyo
E’Space, Tokyo
1989 Gallery Lunami, Tokyo
1988 Gallery Lunami, Tokyo
1987 Gallery Maki, Tokyo
1986 Gallery Parergon II, Tokyo
1984 Gallery Tamura, Tokyo
1983 Gallery Lunami, Tokyo
1982
Gallery Tokiwa, Tokyo
University Hall Gallery, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo
G Art Gallery, Tokyo
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2009
The Secret of the Ninth Planet, CCA Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice, Queen’s Nails Projects,
San Francisco, CA
“LandMark”, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008
Material Terrain, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Intertextuality Of Light, East Asia Contemporary Shanghai, Shanghai, China
Summer Camp For Sculpture, Museum of Art Mercian Karuizawa Nagano, Nagano, Japan
Ogaki Biennial, Ogaki Gifu, Japan
Sight seeing Bus Camera Project, touring exhibition
2007
Out of Body, Deutsche Bank Art, Level B Gallery, New York
Landscape & memory II,” Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Photograph; What You See & What You Don’t, Museum at Tokyo University of Fine Art, Tokyo, Japan
Plastic Time Contemporary Art Exhibition, Shanghai, China
Japan Caught by Camera – Works from the Photographic Art in Japan, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Toride Art Project 2007, Toride City, Ibaraki, Japan
2006
The 4th Art Program Ome 2006, Japan
art@tsuchizawa 2006
epSITE retrospective 1998 – 2006, Gallery epSITE
2005
Director’s Choice: Contemporary Art with Objects from Asia, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Art of Breathing in the World: Art and Respiration, Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art and Sakera
City Museum of Art, Chiba, Japan
Pairs, Groups, and Grids, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
Framing Exposure: Process and Politics, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Sight Seeing Bus Camera Project, Ginza, Tokyo
2004
Temporalscape, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2003
The History of Japanese Photography, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. Traveling to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
2002
Staging Reality, Photography from the West Collection, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA Regarding Landscape, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto; Bronfman Centre for the Arts, Montreal, Canada
Cyclical Art Site - Contemporary Art Exhibition in Oita 2002, Oita Art Museum, Oita, Japan
2001
Ellipsis, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
Luminous, Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, Washington
Techno-Landscape, NTT Inter Communication Center, Tokyo
VIBRATION: Expressive Power of Sculpture, Utsunomiya Museum of Art, Tochigi, Japan
G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, Washington
2000
City of Lights: Art Walk, Comité Colbert, New York
Group show, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2000, Niigata, Japan
1999
Full Exposure, The New Jersey Center for the Visual Arts, Summit, NJ
Blind Spot 12, Robert Mann Gallery, New York
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, VT
Breathing Landscapes, Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
1998
Attack/Damage, Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Japan-Brazil International Tour Exhibition 98/99, toured Rio de Janeiro and five other cities in Brazil
The 9th Bangladesh Asian Art Biennial, Banglades (Excellent Work Award)
Catherine Opie, Richard Rothman & Tokihiro Sato, Leubsdorf Gallery, Hunter College, NY
1997
Photography and Beyond in Japan, the Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI
The 6th Havana Biennial, Cuba
Ways of (Re)Production, Hara Museum ARC, Gunma
1996
Photography and Beyond in Japan, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Liquid Crystal Futures, Neue Gesellschaft fül Bildende Kunst, Berlin; Göteborg Kunsthalle, Götenburg; Müscarnok Palace of Exhibitions, Budapest
Requiem - Koji Enokura and 33 Artists, Saito Memorial Kawaguchi Museum of Contemporary Art, Saitama
Twelve Environments - Japan-Netherlands Contemporary Art Exchange Exhibition, Former School-house of Akasaka Elementary School, Tokyo
Playback and Memory, Dojunkai-Daikanyama Apartment, Tokyo
Gazing into the Light - Tokihiro Sato + Shigenobu Yoshida, Iwaki City Art Museum, Fukushima
1995
Photography and Beyond in Japan, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Internacional Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
After Hiroshima - Message from Contemporary Art, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art
Haizuka Earth Works Project, Hiroshima
NowHere, Het Aporo House, Holland
Nostalgia for Future - Contemporary Art of Yamagata, Yamagata Museum of Art
Open - Air Exhibition - Passage of the Wind, Omiya
Liquid Crystal Futures, Spiral Garden, Tokyo
1994
Photography and Beyond in Japan, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Liquid Crystal Futures, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; Charlottenborg, Copenhagen
Visualization in the End of the Twentieth Century, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
Time/Art ‘Time’ is Expressed in the 20th Century Art, The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga
1993
Collaboration, Sagacho Exhibit Space, Tokyo
Art Scope ’93, Mercedes-Benz, Japan (Grand Prix Award)
1st Asia - Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
1992
1st Transart Annual Painting/Crossing, Bellini Hill Yokohama Galleria, Yokohama
Okabe e Sato a Roma 1991, Gallery Lunami, Tokyo
Japanese Contemporary Photographs, Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul
1991
The Echoes Lights, Gallery Ai, Tokyo
Compound of the Maniera, Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, Tokyo
Simultaneita, Museo di Roma Palazzo Braschi, Rome
Photographic Narration II, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo
Line in Contemporary Art - The Destination of Eyes and Hands, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Urawa
Okabe e Sato a Roma 1991, Gallery Temporary Space #012, Sapporo
The 10th Parallelism in Art Exhibition, Ohara Center, Tokyo
Make-Believe, The Photographers’ Gallery, London
New Space of Photography, Wroclaw, Poland
20 Promising Photographers Vol. 2, Parco Gallery, Tokyo
Australia x Japan Joint Exhibition, Gallery Lunami, Tokyo
Hiroshi Yamazaki x Tokihiro Sato Two Men Exhibition, Gallery Hosomi, Tokyo
1990
The 18th International Art Exhibition Japan, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
International Photograph Festival in Higashikawa, Higashikawa, Hokkaido
Japanese Contemporary Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Pavillon des Arts, Paris
Pusan Biennial 5th, Pusan, Korea
The Imprinted Ideas, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Art, Utsunomiya
1989
The Echoes Lights, Gallery Ai, Tokyo
Japan Professional Photographers Society Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Lunami Selection ‘89, Gallery Lunami, Tokyo
Summer Festival ‘89 in Hakushu, (‘90, ‘91, ‘92), Yamanashi
Window of Marginal Arts, Entetsu Department Store, Hamamatsu
1989
Because, Gallery Surge, Tokyo
The 151st Year of Photography, Heineken Village, Tokyo
1988
Photographic Narration, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo
15 Contemporary Photographic Expressions, Tama Art University, Tokyo
1981
The 15th Contemporary Art Exhibition of Japan, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sjostrom, Jan. “Norton Museum’s new photography show taps additions of past year,” Palm Beach
Daily News, October 12, 2011.
O’Neill, Claire. “The Mysterious Light of Tokihiro Sato,” NPR, June 18, 2010.
Nolan, Joe. “Luminous Warrior,” Nashville Scene, July 29, 2010.
Tao, Anthony. “The Life of Light,” City Weekend, September 28, 2009.
Osborn, Tracy. “Photography between actual and potential forms in Tokihiro Sato,” Japan Exposures,
January 30, 2009.
Aletti, Vince. “Tokihiro Sato.” Village Voice, July 25, 2000.
Artner, Alan G. “Fluorescent lights add magic to Sato photos,” Chicago Tribune, January 20, 2005.
Bing, Alison. “Photographic Light Panels,” SFGate.com, January 14, 2005.
Costa, Eduardo. “Report from Havana: The Installation Biennial.” Art in America, March 1998.
Fouser, Robert J. “In Praise of Mad Shadows: The Photography of Tokihiro Sato.” Art Asia Pacific, no. 21 (1998): pp. 44-49.
Glueck, Grace. “Tokihiro Sato.” The New York Times, Friday, March 13, 1998.
Golden, Michelle. "Tokihiro Sato," Photo District News, January 2005.
Hammond, Anna. “Tokihiro Sato at Leslie Tonkonow.” Art in America, November 2000.
Hawkins, Margaret. "Millennial Moment," ARTnews, April 2005.
Koplos, Janet. “Through a Japanese Viewfinder.” Art in America, March 1997. pp. 84-92.
Kuspit, Donald. "Three Photographers: Luis Mallo, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Tokihiro Sato," Art New England, October/November 2003, pp. 8–9.
Nagoya, Satoru. “Tokihiro Sato: Gan.” Flash Art, May/June 1999.
Nahas, Dominique. “Tokihiro Sato at Leslie Tonkonow.” Review (March 15, 1998): p. 27.
Pollack, Barbara. “Tokihiro, Leslie Tonkonow.” Artnews 97, no. 6 (June 1998): p. 126.
Sato, Tokihiro. Photo-Respiration from Hababa. Tokyo: Gallery Gan, 1997.
Sato, Tokihiro, Enari Tsuneo, and Tsuchida Hiromi. Photo-Respiration, Tokyo: Nikon Salon Books, 2000
Sterns, Robert. “Photography and Beyond” in Japan: Space, Time and Memory. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1995.
Tucker, Ann Wilkes, Dana Friis-Hansen, Kaneko Ryuichi, and Takeba Joe. The History of Japanese Photography, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
AWARDS
1994 The Japanese Government Overseas Study Program
1993 Mercedes Benz in Japan Art Scholarship
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Bering Securities, Ltd.
Capital Group, Los Angeles
Chiba City Art Museum, Chiba
Citibank, New York
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Daimler-Benz
Deutsche Real Estate Consulting
Fiji Xerox Corporation
Goldman Sachs & Co., New York
Goldman Sachs & Co., Tokyo
Hara Museum of Art, Tokyo
Higashikawa Cultural Gallery, Hokkaido
Itabashi Art Museum
Iwaki Municipal Art Museum, Fukushima
Japan Energy Corporation
Japan Foundation, Tokyo
La Salle Bank, Chicago
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
Merrill Lynch, New York
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA
Middlebury College Museum of Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
The School of Business, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Pfizer, Inc., New York
Press Kit Corporation, Tokyo
Progressive Corporation, Cleveland, OH
Rand Corporation
Tokyo Fuji Art Museum
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
Yamagata Museum of Art
Yubari Art Museum
