KOSAKU KANECHIKA is pleased to participate in Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 from March 28th to March 30th, 2025, with a solo presentation by Ataru Sato.

Sato not only understands himself, humanity, and the world around him through the act of drawing and painting, but also communicates through it as well. He uses fine linework and brushstrokes as a tool for expressing various themes such as obsession, fear, and romance. Fact and fiction, real life and fantasy ‒ all well forth, intertwined, through diverse media, including paintings, drawings, and installations.

Viewing contemporary art as a “world of tolerance,” Sato explains that painting is a way for him to receive a certain kind of acceptance that it is all right for someone like him to exist. Often, what he depicts are things that many shy away from, without having understood them properly, things that we conceal deep within ourselves, and turn our backs on. Perhaps that is why they resonate deeply as something painful, or, at times, sweet.

The presentation is structured around the theme of “fruit,” a subject and motif often employed by many painters in the past. An eternal theme in still life, fruit has a profound connection with mythologies and folktales from all over the world, often appearing as something that is symbolic and meaningful.

In this presentation, the artist delves into the multifaceted aspects of fruit, and strives to express the various phenomena, entities, and relationships around him. Sato has provided the following statement for the presentation.
　
I want to create a space thematically centered on fruit.
Fruit is both food as well as an object of beauty that can be appreciated with all five senses. For example, a single orange is brimming with various elements, such as skin, seeds, sweetness, sourness, juice, and fragrance. These elements can also be applied to humans. Instead of drawing fruit itself, I aim to create work that emerges from the relationship and similarities that we have with fruit.
　
Sato has worked on many portraits in the past, but the new perspective in these recent works brings out a renewed intensity, jolting the senses in an even more profound way. This presentation will consist of approximately 20 works. We cordially invite you to view Sato’s new endeavors.

Ataru Sato

Ataru Sato was born in Chiba Prefecture in 1986 and is currently based in Tokyo, Japan. In 2009, he graduated from the Advanced Art Course in the Department of Information Design, Faculty of Arts and Design at Kyoto University of Arts and Design. In addition to his 2011 and 2015 solo exhibitions at Gallery Koyanagi, the artist has also held shows in cities such as New York and Brussels. The artist’s major group exhibitions include “10000 Lives: The 8th Gwangju Biennale” (2010), “Yokohama Triennale 2011: OUR MAGIC HOUR ‒ How Much of the World Can We Know?” (2011), “Inside” (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2014), “Interpretations, Tokyo” (Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, 2019), “Dojima River Biennale 2019” (2019), “Yanbaru Art Festival” (2023), and “LA MORSURE DES TERMITES” (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2023). Sato’s works have been acquired by the Miyanomori International Museum of Art, Sapporo, the Japigozzi Collection, the Takahashi Ryutaro Collection, and Louis Vuitton Malletier.