Tomo Sakurai
櫻井智
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.
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.
My practice explores Dynamic Equilibrium—temporary states that emerge through the differences and relations between distinct elements. At the foundation of this practice are what I call the Three Visual Principles.
The Three Visual Principles consist of Polarity, Continuum, and Ma. Polarity considers the relation between two distinct poles; Continuum addresses the changes and transitions that exist between them; and Ma considers the field in which different elements can remain distinct while existing in relation to one another. Rather than treating these three principles separately, I use their interrelations as a way of composing and perceiving my work.
I work across materials with different properties, including acrylic and oil paint, sumi ink, resin, mineral pigments, metals, plants, wax, metal leaf, glass, and clay. I observe how these materials transform through heat, gravity, flow, drying, oxidation, and solidification, intervening and making choices throughout the process. Materials do not always respond as intended; through the relation between my interventions and the forces acting upon them, states emerge that cannot be fully predicted.
By Dynamic Equilibrium, I mean a temporary state in which different elements remain distinct without cancelling one another out. It is not a static balance, but a state that emerges from multiple relations and can shift into another state as those relations change.
For me, making art is not about imposing a predetermined form onto materials. I work upon materials and phenomena, observe their responses, and respond in turn to the changes that emerge, intervening further when necessary.
A work is the material fixation of a temporary state that has emerged through this relation between intervention and action.
私の制作は、異なるもののあいだに生じる差異と関係を観察し、そこから一時的に成立する「動的均衡（Dynamic Equilibrium）」を捉える試みです。
その基盤にあるのが、私が「三視覚原理（Three Visual Principles）」と呼ぶ制作原理です。
三視覚原理は、Polarity（両極）、Continuum（連続体）、Ma（間）から構成されています。Polarityは異なる二つの極の関係、Continuumはそのあいだに存在する変化や移行、Maは異なる要素が差異を保ちながら関係として成立する場を捉えるための原理です。
三つを切り離して考えるのではなく、相互の関係を通して作品を構成し、捉えています。
制作には、アクリル絵具、油彩、墨、樹脂、岩絵具、金属、植物、蝋、箔、ガラス、粘土など、性質の異なる素材を横断的に用いています。熱、重力、流動、乾燥、酸化、凝固などによって素材が変化していく過程を観察し、介入と選択を重ねます。素材は必ずしも意図した通りに変化するわけではなく、操作と作用が関係するなかで、予測しきれない状態が生まれます。
私が捉える動的均衡とは、異なる要素が互いの差異を解消することなく関係し、一つの状態を一時的に成立させることです。それは静止した均衡ではなく、複数の関係から生まれ、その関係の変化によって別の状態へと移り得るものです。
私にとって創作とは、あらかじめ定めた形態を素材に一方的に与えることではありません。素材と現象に働きかけ、その応答を観察しながら、そこに生じる変化を受け取り、必要に応じてさらに手を加えていく行為です。
作品とは、そうした操作と作用の関係から一時的に生まれた状態を、物質として定着させたものです。
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
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
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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。