SASU“Self.help”
session：2024.12.20fri - 2025.2.8sat 13:00 - 19:00
*closed on Sun, Mon, Tue and public holidays.
*winter holidays：2024.12.29sun - 2025.1.7tue
venue：SNOW Contemporary / 404 Hayano Bldg. 2-13-12 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo
opening reception : 2024.12.20fri 17:00 - 19:00
SNOW Contemporary is pleased to announce SASU's solo exhibition “Self.help” from December 20, 2024 to February 8, 2025.
SASU is a female artist known as a member of the artist unit HITOTZUKI, which has been widely active since the 1990s in creating murals and other activities in Japan and abroad. She has been interested in design and characters since childhood, and since her teenage years, she has been building her unique worldview with a wide range of influences from Sanrio to street culture, expressing her deep spirituality through her colorful and symmetrical compositions. She is among the few pioneering female artists in the Japanese street art scene. SASU's style of simple, symbolic motifs in a male-dominated scene is innovative and has brought a new element of ‘harmony’ and ‘comfort’ to street art.
“Self.help,” SASU's first solo exhibition in 21 years, will mainly feature new paintings, as well as a three-dimensional work that recreates her childhood actions, which can be considered the starting point of her creative activities, and some of the zines that she self-published when she was in junior high school. This will be a valuable opportunity to look back on the history of her activities and see new possibilities for expression.
In the late 1990s, SASU was first exposed to graffiti in Canada, where she painted characters using spray cans at a skateboard park. After returning to Japan, she met her partner, KAMI. This encounter led to her awakening to mural painting as a member of the American artist collective “Barnstormers,” the beginning of the current mural movement. Later, she participated in art projects in various European countries, and 2002, she worked as an artist for Nike's “PRESTO instant go Asia Campaign,” and her motion graphic work was highly acclaimed in the industry and won awards, contributing to new possibilities in advertising expression. In 2004, she participated in “Ill Communication II” at Urbis, a museum in the UK. Later, she participated in “Something Else - STREET INSPIRED WOMEN'S ART SHOW,” an exhibition of female artists held in the UK with the internationally influential female artist Swoon and others, and at the same time, her activities as HITOTZUKI began in earnest.
In 2005, she participated in “X-COLOR / Graffiti in Japan” (Art Tower Mito Contemporary Art Center) and “Roppongi Crossing: Can There Be Art?” (Mori Art Museum) in 2010, where she drew attention with her installation using skateboard sections. Furthermore, in 2014, she designed the bottle for the “PERRIER Inspired By Street Art” campaign, successfully transforming art into everyday items. SASU's works traverse the boundary between street art and contemporary art, establishing a unique style that encompasses not only visual esthetics but also inner growth and social messages, which the artist says is heavily influenced by the sudden loss of her mother at the age of 22.
While confronted with this great loss, she developed an interest in psychology and mental health care, gaining insights that helped her understand herself and sort through her emotions. This event deeply influenced her view of life and death and her inner growth, serving as a catalyst for the deep spirituality reflected in her art.
She grew up in a suburban area of Tokyo with a family where her grandparents ran a motorcycle shop and a farm. She describes that the intersection of both environments, flower gardens surrounded by nature and mechanical motorcycles, has influenced the contrast and coexistence of organic (natural) and geometric (artificial) elements in her work. (*Self.help 01, 2024)
In particular, motifs such as ‘flowery symmetries’ and ‘characters’ reflect the opposing themes of life and death, nature and artifice, and the individual and society. Their shapes and colors encapsulate SASU's memories and emotions.
Currently, while balancing her role as a mother and her activities as an artist, this conflict has significantly influenced her artwork. The title of this exhibition, “Self.help,” reflects her desire to share this energy with her viewers and use her entire creative process as a form of “self-help” to heal herself. Her works aim to help viewers feel more compassion for the world and to gain healing and awareness.
This exhibition, “Self.help” will showcase SASU's diverse and powerful body of works. We cordially invite you all to visit and experience the unique energy and worldview of her works.
session：2024.12.20fri - 2025.2.8sat 13:00 - 19:00
*closed on Sun, Mon, Tue and public holidays.
*winter holidays：2024.12.29sun - 2025.1.7tue
venue：SNOW Contemporary / 404 Hayano Bldg. 2-13-12 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo
opening reception : 2024.12.20fri 17:00 - 19:00
SNOW Contemporary is pleased to announce SASU's solo exhibition “Self.help” from December 20, 2024 to February 8, 2025.
SASU is a female artist known as a member of the artist unit HITOTZUKI, which has been widely active since the 1990s in creating murals and other activities in Japan and abroad. She has been interested in design and characters since childhood, and since her teenage years, she has been building her unique worldview with a wide range of influences from Sanrio to street culture, expressing her deep spirituality through her colorful and symmetrical compositions. She is among the few pioneering female artists in the Japanese street art scene. SASU's style of simple, symbolic motifs in a male-dominated scene is innovative and has brought a new element of ‘harmony’ and ‘comfort’ to street art.
“Self.help,” SASU's first solo exhibition in 21 years, will mainly feature new paintings, as well as a three-dimensional work that recreates her childhood actions, which can be considered the starting point of her creative activities, and some of the zines that she self-published when she was in junior high school. This will be a valuable opportunity to look back on the history of her activities and see new possibilities for expression.
In the late 1990s, SASU was first exposed to graffiti in Canada, where she painted characters using spray cans at a skateboard park. After returning to Japan, she met her partner, KAMI. This encounter led to her awakening to mural painting as a member of the American artist collective “Barnstormers,” the beginning of the current mural movement. Later, she participated in art projects in various European countries, and 2002, she worked as an artist for Nike's “PRESTO instant go Asia Campaign,” and her motion graphic work was highly acclaimed in the industry and won awards, contributing to new possibilities in advertising expression. In 2004, she participated in “Ill Communication II” at Urbis, a museum in the UK. Later, she participated in “Something Else - STREET INSPIRED WOMEN'S ART SHOW,” an exhibition of female artists held in the UK with the internationally influential female artist Swoon and others, and at the same time, her activities as HITOTZUKI began in earnest.
In 2005, she participated in “X-COLOR / Graffiti in Japan” (Art Tower Mito Contemporary Art Center) and “Roppongi Crossing: Can There Be Art?” (Mori Art Museum) in 2010, where she drew attention with her installation using skateboard sections. Furthermore, in 2014, she designed the bottle for the “PERRIER Inspired By Street Art” campaign, successfully transforming art into everyday items. SASU's works traverse the boundary between street art and contemporary art, establishing a unique style that encompasses not only visual esthetics but also inner growth and social messages, which the artist says is heavily influenced by the sudden loss of her mother at the age of 22.
While confronted with this great loss, she developed an interest in psychology and mental health care, gaining insights that helped her understand herself and sort through her emotions. This event deeply influenced her view of life and death and her inner growth, serving as a catalyst for the deep spirituality reflected in her art.
She grew up in a suburban area of Tokyo with a family where her grandparents ran a motorcycle shop and a farm. She describes that the intersection of both environments, flower gardens surrounded by nature and mechanical motorcycles, has influenced the contrast and coexistence of organic (natural) and geometric (artificial) elements in her work. (*Self.help 01, 2024)
In particular, motifs such as ‘flowery symmetries’ and ‘characters’ reflect the opposing themes of life and death, nature and artifice, and the individual and society. Their shapes and colors encapsulate SASU's memories and emotions.
Currently, while balancing her role as a mother and her activities as an artist, this conflict has significantly influenced her artwork. The title of this exhibition, “Self.help,” reflects her desire to share this energy with her viewers and use her entire creative process as a form of “self-help” to heal herself. Her works aim to help viewers feel more compassion for the world and to gain healing and awareness.
This exhibition, “Self.help” will showcase SASU's diverse and powerful body of works. We cordially invite you all to visit and experience the unique energy and worldview of her works.
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