Tomo Sakurai
櫻井智
My practice is an act of receiving all phenomena as a continuum—an unfolding gradation—and of generating the latent possibilities of harmony that reside within it.
I work with a wide range of materials, including acrylic paint, soot-based ink, mineral pigments, metal, driftwood, wax, glass, clay, moss, LED light, and stone.
By reflecting the inherent laws and shifting behaviors of each substance in the work, opposing concepts—such as matter and spirit, order and becoming—intersect and diffuse into one another, giving rise to diverse and fluid forms.
I observe these conditions and record the emergent “in-between,” a practice that seeks to visualize awai.
Awai refers to a natural relationality that exceeds intention, the subtle interval that arises at the boundaries between things—a space where borders soften, opposites coexist, and moments of harmony surface.
For me, creation is not an act of projecting personal will.
It is the act of attuning myself to the forces and phenomena inherent in the world, allowing their interplay to reveal a fleeting moment of harmony—awai—and bearing witness to it through the work.
All phenomena exist as gradations, and each artwork becomes a fragment that captures a transient aspect—an ephemeral configuration—of this continuous flow.
These choices of materials and processes resonate with the Japanese sensibility toward mono—an attentiveness to the presence of things—
and an aesthetic that finds beauty in imperfection, while also engaging with the multiplicity and material phenomenology explored in contemporary art since the 20th century.
私の制作は、あらゆる事象を連続体 (グラデーション) として受け止め、そのなかに潜む調和の可能性を生成していく行為です。
素材はアクリル絵具をはじめ、煤から作る墨、岩絵具、金属、流木、蝋、ガラス、粘土、苔、LEDライト、石など、多種多様な物質を用いています。
それぞれが固有にもつ法則や現象の変化を作品に反映させることで、物質と精神、秩序と生成といった対立概念が交差し、多様な形となって滲み合います。
私はその状態を観察し、生まれ出る “あいだ” を記録していきます。これはすなわち、「あわい」を可視化するための実践です。
「あわい」とは、意図を超えた自然な関係性や、ものとものの境界に生まれる余白を指します。
そこでは境界が曖昧になり、対極が共存し、調和が芽生えます。
私にとって創作とは、自己の意志を投影することではありません。
世界に内在する力や現象との相互作用に身を委ね、その流れの中に立ち上がる一瞬の調和、つまり “あわい” を捉え、記録する行為にほかなりません。
万物の事象はグラデーションであり、作品はその連続体の中に生まれる “あわいの相 (すがた) ” をとらえた断片なのです。
これらの素材選択や制作プロセスは、日本美術における「もの」への感受性や、不完全性を美とする思想と共鳴しつつ、20世紀以降の現代美術が探求してきた素材の多義性や現象性とも呼応しています。
Biography
Born in Nagano, Japan. Lives and works in Tokyo.
Tomo Sakurai had an awakening of her talent in pencil drawing as a teenager.
It was the beauty of the shadow that completely fascinated her.
After she studied graphic design at art university, she went ahead to the path of the black and white by self-study.
She draws conceptual art based on "The duality of things" and "Liberation from the limitations of the unconscious".
Pencil artist who expresses color in monochrome.
2007 Graduated from Yokohama College of Art and Design, Yokohama, Japan
Solo Solo
2021 TOMO SAKURAI Print Exhibition Vol.1 (RESURRECTION, Tokyo)
2020 Tomo Sakurai Exhibition (Off The Street Gallery, Tokyo)
MONOCHROME 2020 Tomo Sakurai exhibition (Art Gallery SANAGI, Tokyo)
Group
2021 Tomo Sakurai and shinPo mai 2person exhibition "Totan no me" (Laugh & Peace Art Gallery, Osaka)
Installation of a 2 person exhibition "Silver Factory" (Double tall art & Espresso bar, Tokyo)
Art Fair
2021 ART FAIR TOKYO 2021 (Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo)
2020 artTNZ produced by AFT with APCA (TERRADA ART COMPLEX II, Tokyo)
Museum
2020 Korea Art Museum (Soul, Korea)
Awards
2007 "Yokohama College of Art Graduation Exhibition" Encouragement Award
Nagano Prefecture, was born. Lives in Tokyo.
At the age of 13, she was fascinated by the beauty of shade and began drawing pencil drawings.
Studied graphic design at an art university, then self-taught to the path of pencil drawing. I went another way once, but 13 years later, I started drawing again after a certain thing.
Draw conceptual art at an intermediate point, centering on "two-sidedness of things" and "freedom from unconscious restrictions".
A pencil artist who expresses colors in monochrome.
Overseas, it has a contract with "GALERIE bruno massa", which has offices in Paris, NY, South Korea, and Georgia, and has an agent contract with a management company in Japan.
Established TOMO ART WORK STUDIO in 2021.
2007 Graduated from Yokohama College of Art and Design, Department of Graphic Design
2021 Established TOMO ART WORK STUDIO
Solo exhibition
2021 TOMO SAKURAI Print Exhibition Vol.1 (RESURRECTION, Tokyo)
2020 Tomo Sakurai Exhibition (Off The Street Gallery, Tokyo)
MONOCHROME2020 Tomo Sakurai Original Painting Exhibition (Art Gallery Chrysalis, Tokyo)
Group exhibition
2021 Tomo Sakurai and shinPo mai Two-person exhibition-Bud of charcoal coating- (Laugh & Peace Art Gallery Osaka, Osaka)
Installation Two-person Exhibition "Silver Paper Factory" (Double tall art & Espresso bar, Tokyo)
Secret exhibition "UNCHAiN" (Harajuku somewhere, Tokyo)
Art fair
2021 Art Fair Tokyo 2021 (Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo)
2020 artTNZ produced by AFT with APCA (TERRADA ART COMPLEX II, Tokyo)
Museum
2020 Korean Art Museum (Seoul)
Award
2007 "Yokohama College of Art and Design Graduation Exhibition" Encouragement Award
Japanese Culture and
Contemporary Art Project
This is an attempt to embody "GOEN" itself, a sensory language that cannot be directly translated in foreign languages connected through artwork, from the perspective of sustainability and contemporary art. The first phase of the project will be an exhibition at several venues in Paris, the place of origin, in January 2024.
Photo: Ryo Iwaki
Model: Yuko Shimoji
Place: DDD ART
Model: Aya Izaki
Place: Tokyo International Gallery
KASANE -累- (2024)
Acrylic paint, mineral pigments, gold dust, oil-based alkyd resin, sumi-ink, synthetic resin, pulp on wood panel
木製パネルにアクリル絵具、岩絵具、金粉、油性アルキド樹脂、墨、合成樹脂、パルプ
This work is a collage of paper that were laid on the floor of the former Gojo Rakuen brothel in Kyoto, Japan. The building where the paper was located was demolished last year and disappeared. It is a very special piece of work with a profound sense of history of approximately 173 years.
京都の旧遊郭《五条楽園》の妓楼床に敷かれていた
約173年前の紙をコラージュした作品。
遊郭は2024年に解体され、姿を消した。
When I am silent, I fall into that place
Where everything is music
───Rumi
Today I have seen the works by contemporary artist Tomo Sakurai. It was an arranged meeting in the sunny winter day. I’m always happy to go out on the days like this. Everything was black and white, the simplicity of colors made me turn my attention to the texture, gradations, mysterious forms, that move, expend, sing in its own language. No, not language, they sing in silence. I always try to fill my wardrobe with colors and my days with music, and I guess I miss some other beautiful aspect of life.
Once I’ve heard that when you are sad it’s like the world looses it’s colors. Our emotions effect how we see the world, how we react, what we expect. But the world without colors, is it so bad? The world is just stripped out of it’s clothes and accessories, fancy perfumes and make up.
And what is left then? Just naked truth.
The truth that we are afraid to face. Some people is afraid to be alone for even sometime, because they don’t want to face themselves as they are. Imperfect, hurt maybe, but a beautiful human who can love, share joy, overcome challenges. The truth is very simple, colored in white and black.
Some people turn on TV just to avoid the silence, and not knowing that silence speaks more than any sounds. And black and white may express much more than any colors.
In the tarot deck there is a “Death” card, portraying a skeleton, but the meaning is not a death itself. The meaning is transformation and rebirth, facing the truth. Skeleton, without skin or muscles, nothing left but the truth.
If I keep writing I feel I will produce even more chaotic thoughts. Let me stop here with realization of something important and something still covered in mystery. I will stop right now and sit in silence facing noting else but the truth.
Curator
静かになったら落ちていく
全てが音楽になる場所に
───ルーミー
晴れた冬の日の打ち合わせだった。こんな日のお出かけはいつも嬉しい気分になる。
コンテンポラリーアーティスト、桜井智の作品を見た。作品はモノクロームで非常にシンプルなので、私の注意はテクスチャー、グラデーション、動いて、拡大して、不思議な言語で語ってくる神秘的な形に向かっていった。いや、言語ではなく沈黙を歌っているようだ。
私はいつもワードローブをカラフルなもので満たして、毎日を音楽で満たそうとしているが、人生の別の美しい側面が恋しくはないか？
悲しい時は世界が色を失うと聞いたことがある。もちろん私たちの感情は、周りの見方、反応、期待によって影響を与える。だが果たして色のない世界はそんなに悪いのだろうか？華美な服やアクセサリー、香水、メイクアップが無くなるだけ。
そこには何が残るのか？それは、ただ裸の真実。私たちが直面することを恐れている真実。
ありのままの自分と向き合えず、一人でいることを恐れる人もいるだろう。不完全だと感じて傷ついているかもしれない。しかし人間は、愛し、喜びを分かち合い、困難を乗り越えることができる美しい生き物でもある。真実は非常にシンプルで、白と黒で彩られているのだ。
沈黙を避けるためだけにテレビを付けてみても、沈黙がどんな音よりも多くを語っていることを知らない人がいる。同じように、黒と白はどの色よりも多くのことを表現しているのだ。タロットデッキには、骸骨を描いた「死」のカードがある。
しかし、その意味は「死」そのものではない。真実と向き合い、変容と再生を意味している。骨、皮膚、筋肉といった概念は無くなり、そこには真実だけが残る。書き始めるとさらに混沌とした考えが湧きあがってきた。ここで、謎に包まれた重要なことに気が付いたので、この辺りで止まらない考えの流れを書き終えることにする。筆を止め、沈黙の中に座り、真実に向き合いたい。