Sakuji YOSHIMOTO

KENJI TAKI GALLERY

(b.1959)

Three Trees and the Grave of the Saints, 2012 – 2014

Biography

1959: Born in Gifu City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Spent his childhood in Kochi City, Kochi Prefecture, and Kosei, Shiga Prefecture. Moved to Kuwana City, Mie Prefecture at the age of 9.
1984: B.F.A. in Painting, Nagoya University of Arts.
1986: Stayed and worked in New York for 5 months.
1989: Held a solo exhibition in New York, followed by his first visit to Europe.
1995: Visited New York with a grant from the Nagoya Cultural Promotion Agency as an Emerging Artist Overseas Trainee.
1996: Trainee under the Agency for Cultural Affairs Internship Program (FY1996).
1997: Nagoya City Art Encouragement Prize.
1999: Yumehiroba Haruhi Excellence Award at the 1st Yumehiroba Haruhi Painting Exhibition, Haruhi-cho (currently Kiyosu City), Aichi.
2005–: Professor in the Western Painting Course, Department of Fine Arts, Faculty of Arts, Nagoya University of Arts.
2020: FY2019 Aichi Prefectural Arts and Culture Prize (Cultural Prize / Painting).
Currently: Lives in Nisshin City, Aichi Prefecture. Works between Mie and Aichi.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

1984/1985: Gallery Seki, Nagoya / Akira Ikeda Gallery, Nagoya
1987–1989: Akira Ikeda Gallery, Tokyo / Kametani Art Museum, Ise, Mie / Akira Ikeda Gallery, Nagoya / Judson Art Warehouse Viewing Gallery, New York, USA
1995: Kohji Ogura Gallery, Nagoya
1997: Kohji Ogura Gallery, Nagoya
1999/2000: O Gallery eyes, Osaka / Gallery OH + Oribetei, Ichinomiya, Aichi / Kohji Ogura Gallery, Nagoya
2002–2004: Gallery OH, Ichinomiya, Aichi / Gallery Cellar, Nagoya / Gallery Miyako, Osaka (Twice) / Gallery Cellar, Nagoya
2005: Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Citizens’ Gallery, Tsu, Mie / Gallery Cellar, Nagoya / Gallery Miyako, Osaka
2006: Gallery Cellar, Nagoya
2007: Nagoya University of Arts, Art & Design Center BE Gallery, Kitanagoya, Aichi
2008: Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2009: Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2010: Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2011: Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2012: Sakuji Yoshimoto New Works: Early Summer, Three Trees… Cursive Style, Tradition, Excess, Omission, Graffiti, Unfinished, Hmm Hmm…, Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2014: Sakuji Yoshimoto: Chaotic Construction, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2015: 1985 / 2015, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2017: Sansui Hoto (Dissolute Landscape), Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2019: Theory of Landscape Painting, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2020: Giant Tree Worship, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2022: Takigyo (Waterfall Asceticism), Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2023: Unbleached Color, Drawing, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2024: Sakuji Yoshimoto: The Path of Painting, Nagoya City Art Museum / The Path of Painting II, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya / The Path of Painting III, Kenji Taki Gallery Roppongi, Tokyo
2025: The Path of Painting Continued, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya

Selected Group Exhibitions

1982: Meigei Selections, Nagoya City Museum, Nagoya
1983: Banquet I, Box Gallery, Nagoya / Banquet II, Nagoya City Museum, Nagoya / Five Fevers ’83, Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Citizens’ Gallery, Tsu, Mie
1984: Banquet III, Westbeth Gallery, Nagoya / Banquet IV, Nagoya City Museum, Nagoya
1985: Five Fevers ’85 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery, Yokohama
1986: Art in Front ’86 – Forefront of Fin-de-Siècle Art, Spiral Garden, Tokyo / The 6th Hara Annual, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
1987: Painting 1977-1987, The National Museum of Art, Osaka / Relief & Sculpture, Akira Ikeda Gallery, Tokyo
1988: Nagoya Contemporary Art Fair – II, Nagoya Electric Cultural Center, Nagoya
1989: Nagoya Contemporary Art Fair – III, Nagoya Electric Cultural Center, Nagoya / Perspectives of Contemporary Painting – Blessed Painting (The 19th Contemporary Japanese Art Exhibition, Special Section), Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (Touring: Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art / Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa / Funabashi Seibu Museum of Art, Chiba / Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Fukuoka / Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art)
1991: Art Wave ’91, Hisaya Odori Park Mochinoki Hiroba, Nagoya [Aug 24 – Aug 26, 1999]
1996: The Vision of Contemporary Art (VOCA) ’96, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo / Scenes of Childhood – Cute but Elusive, Mie Prefectural Art Museum / topica. Japanese Contemporary Artists greet 1100 years of Hungary, Esztergom Castle Museum / Festetics Palace Museum, Hungary
1997: Whereabouts of the Gaze – Positions in Contemporary Art 1997, Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya
1998: Sakuji Yoshimoto, Satoshi Imamura, Arika Someya OPEN STUDIO, Inabe, Mie
1999: Painting Theater Act 1, O Gallery eyes, Osaka / Active Faults in Painting Expression, Nagoya Citizens’ Gallery, Nagoya
2000: Tracking the Territory, O Gallery eyes, Osaka
2001: Toru Matsuoka + Sakuji Yoshimoto AFTER REMISEN #2, Nagoya University of Arts, Art & Design Center, Aichi / BOUNDLESS BLUE, O Gallery eyes, Osaka
2003: 108 (One Hundred Eight), Ise Cultural Foundation Gallery, New York, USA / The 22nd Sompo Japan Fine Art Foundation Outstanding Rising Artists Exhibition, Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Museum of Art, Tokyo
2006: Next Station – To the Next Art Station, Nagoya Citizens’ Gallery Yada, Nagoya
2007: City_net Asia 2007, Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea
2008: The Masked Portrait, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, USA
2009/2010: Merry-Go-Round of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu / Aichi Art Forest, Nagoya
2011: Togen Banzai! Genealogy of East Asian Utopias, Mindscape Museum, Okazaki, Aichi / Classics, Art Lab Aichi, Nagoya
2012: Magic / Art: The Technology of Illusion and the Inner Otherworld, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya
2016: Collection Exhibition Western Painting in Japan, How Western is it? – From Yuichi Takahashi to Contemporary Painters, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya
2017: Works on Paper, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2019: Who Opens Up the World?, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi / Aichi Art Chronicle 1919-2019, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya
2020: Light of Manifestation, Art Lab Aichi, Nagoya
2022: Tracing the Path: “Since Then” of 5 Painters, Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum, Kiyosu, Aichi
2023: “MEMORIES 02” selected by Tomio Koyama, CADAN Yurakucho, Tokyo
2025: 30th Anniversary Collection Exhibition VISION: Stars and Star Maps | Star Map II: Society and the World, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi

Selected Public Collections

Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art / The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu / Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum / Toyota Municipal Museum of Art / Mie Prefectural Art Museum