KANAKO SASAKI

Kanako Sasaki was born in Sendai, Japan in 1976 and was educated at the Royal College of Art in London and received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. She has had solo exhibitions in the US, Japan, Bolivia and Hungary and has been included in many international group exhibitions.  She has participated in artist residencies in Austria, Iceland, Paris, Estonia, Vienna and New York and been awarded many fellowships and grants.  She has also taught photography at CUNY Staten Island, NY and the International Summer School of Photography in Latvia.  She lives and works in Japan.

In her series Wanderlust, Kanako Sasaki explores her own imaginative world influenced by traditional Japanese novels, Ukiyo-e paintings and childhood memories. Within her surreal and eccentric settings, Sasaki’s characters, usually herself, evoke ideas of isolation, escape and uninhibited freedom. The juxtaposition of bleak emotion within a fantastical landscape leaves the viewer mesmerized with wonderment.  Sasaki’s work also comments on issues such as the female experience, loss of innocence, hopeless romance and how Japanese culture is viewed from the outside. 

RESUME

https://www.kanakosasaki.com