Satoshi Hirose (b. 1963, Japan) lives and works in Milan and Tokyo. Actively producing works since the 1990s, he has participated in numerous exhibitions internationally, across Japan, Asia and Italy.
The concept of Hirose’s work, on a macro perspective, extends to encompass the entire earth, countries, seasons, and even to the universe. At the same time, Hirose discovers richness and diversity in the context of everyday Italian cuisine, while unearthing a common sense of happiness and meaning for life through the encounters and dialogues experienced over the course of his intercultural journeys. A major characteristic of Hirose’s work is to transfer such everydayness to an artistic level, while serving to present a strong influence on the viewer’s five senses.

Without limiting himself to the so-called framework of “painting,” Hiroshi Sugito (b. Japan, 1970) creates places where architecture and artworks interact with one another to realize new forms of exhibition space. Unlike an “installation,” in such context each work has its own and independent “space.” Observed in the various spaces between respective works and that of the exhibition space and ourselves are Sugito’s ideas and contemplations as an artist, his meticulous research, various processes, time, and use of colors and blank spaces. These are brought together as myriads of layers, almost creating a rich rhythm or melody of sorts that permeates the entire space of the works. He has exhibited extensively both in Japan and internationally since the 1990s.

Kishio Suga (b. Japan,1944) served as a central member of the art movement Mono-ha that took place from the late 1960s to the 1970s. For over 50 years since, Suga has continued to pursue a consistent philosophy and actively develop his artistic practice, paving his own unique path as one of the leading figures of Postwar Japanese art in our times. Even in recent years when the reevaluation of Mono-ha has been gaining much international recognition, he persists in further deepening his contemplation, with his unfaltering passion and enthusiasm for his practice serving to define the presentness of his work.
Since his first solo exhibition in 1968, Suga has presented work on over 400 occasions in numerous exhibitions both within Japan and abroad.

Daido Moriyama (b. 1938, Osaka) first worked as an assistant to photographers Takeji Iwamiya and Eikoh Hosoe before becoming independent in 1964. In 1968, he published Nippon Gekijō Shashinchō (Japan Theater Photo Album), and in 1972 he published Shashin yo Sayonara (Farewell Photography), which showed the darker sides of urban life and the city. He has had a radical impact on the photographic and art world in both Japan and in the West with his are-bure-boke (“grainy, blurry, out-of-focus”) style of snapshots that defied the conventional rules of photography and chronicled the rapid industrialization of post-war Japan. His works continue to be presented in large scale exhibitions worldwide.

b. 1955
Lives and works in New York City.
Deborah Brown lives in New York and works in Bushwick/East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a neighborhood she helped pioneer as an artist and where she started Storefront, one of the first artist-run galleries in the neighborhood. Brown has a BA from Yale University and an MFA from Indiana University. Recent solo and group exhibitions include: GAVLAK Palm Beach, FL; Burning in Water, New York; Danese/Corey, New York; The Lodge, Los Angeles; Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art, Houston, TX; Union Hall, Denver, CO; The Bundy Modern, Waitsfield, VT; Freight + Volume, New York; Underdonk, Brooklyn; and Angell Gallery, Toronto. Deborah Brown is a 5th generation Californian who grew up in Pasadena.

Born in 1979 in Saitama, Japan, Shohei Takasaki lived in both Japan and Portland, USA before settling in Sydney, Australia where he now lives and works. The underlying and consistent theme across Takasaki’s body of work is the idea of comparison. Often repeating the same motif within a single work, he uses different painting approaches to build the subject in contrasting styles, creating works that are simultaneously figurative yet abstract, thereby drawing attention to the paradox, or “in-betweenness”, that arises from this juxtapositional experiment.

(1880–1977)
Kumagai Morikazu was born in Gifu Prefecture. After graduating from Tokyo School of Fine Arts, he was active at the Bunten (government-sponsored exhibitions), and for about five years worked as a woodcutter in the Kiso Mountains, following his mother’s death. Kumagai is widely recognized for a style distinguished by bright colors and clear forms. His later works, depicting familiar living things like flowers, insects, and birds, are cherished by people across all ages. He refused the Order of Culture, preferring to spend an artistic life free of official interference. Kumagai was often considered as ‘the recluse of the Japanese art world.’

(1912-1998)
Avant-garde calligrapher from Hyōgo Prefecture. Like fellow artist Inoue Yūichi, Morita studied under the calligraphy master Ueda Sōkyū. He co-founded the avant-garde group Bokujinkai together with Inoue and was the founder and editor of the journal Bokubi (Beauty of Ink), both of which revolutionized traditional Japanese calligraphy and spread knowledge of Japanese avant-garde calligraphy to an international audience. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor with Dark Blue Ribbon.

(b. 1958)
Honda Takeshi was born in 1958 in Yamaguchi Prefecture. For Honda, before the age of thirty, drawing and painting as a means of expressing his emotions was an activity limited to his free time. It was only after he moved to Tono, Iwate Prefecture, in 1987 that he fully embarked on a career as an artist. Since then, he has continued to depict the mountains in Tono in order to explore and question the interconnectedness among nature, environment and himself for more than 3 decades. Honda’s works are in the collections of major art museums in Japan and abroad, such as Iwate Prefectural Museum of Art, Kumamoto Museum of Modern Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Drawing Center (New York), and others. He lives and works in Tono.

Born in Kyoto in 1969, Moto is an illustrator/manga artist. Since 1990, he has been working as a freelance illustrator. Later, he also debuted as a manga artist, gaining an enthusiastic fan base for his seemingly idyllic style of drawing that contrasts with his acutely poisonous stories and worldview. The artist has a deep knowledge of music and frequently writes for music magazines. Moto’s work encompasses commercials, magazine advertisements, and CD jackets. His main works include Recosuke-kun (Music Magazine), MOTOBook (Yoizumi-sha), and Moto Hideyasu no egaku yon peiji (4 pages drawn by Hideyasu Moto) (published by Ota).