Untitled

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Yuichi Sugai Bio

born in 1952 in Yokohama, Japan

In the 1970s, Yuichi was very active within the minimalist paintings movement and held, at that time, exhibitions in different galleries in Tokyo as well as art institutions such as the Kyoto Museum, Kanagawa Citizen's Gallery, etc.

In the early 1980s, Yuichi studied printmaking and subsequently opened a printing studio in Tokyo that soon became a reference in Japan and overseas, working with such artists as Toeko Tatsuno, Ufan Lee, Isamu Wakabayashi, Sandro Chia, Martin Kippenberger, Donald Baechler, etc.

In the mid mid-1990s he married and moved to the United States with his new wife. He continued making prints for international artists and taught printmaking at various institutions.

After many years of hesitation and a deep will and need to create art, Yuichi decided in 2009 to produce his own work again. He developed a brand new series of works inspired by his childhood and a sense of nostalgia that currently inhabit him. Yuichi is using a very unique medium; mixing printmaking techniques, painting and Kimono fabric to produce very original and inspiring works.

2014 "Vigorous Showa" exhibition, J-LABO, Brooklyn, NY
2013 Solo Exhibition/Art Statements, Hong Kong
2011 Solo Exhibition/Art Statements, Tokyo
2011 Los Angeles Art Show, USA
2010 SH Contemporary Shanghai, China

about my work

It is often said that people became more aware of their own cultural heritage when they are away from their own country. My case is no exception. Living in a foreign country, the interest and the empathy toward my native country, Japan, its history and culture, and the era I grew up in, grew deeper and deeper.

My generation were brought up under a strong influence of American culture. It planted a great admiration to America, and a neglect toward our own cultural heritage. To seriously look back into my own background and where I came from, it took me over five years of living in the USA.

My works are an homage, an admiration, a nostalgia, and sometimes a big question mark to my own Japanese heritage and the Shouwa period in which I grew up.

If my works could represent a psychological landscape of my generation, I have nothing more to add.

Yuichi Sugai