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Koichi Sato

Inner Harvest

April 29 – May 28, 2022

Install photo of large Sato paintings, people playing instruments
Gallery view of Koichi install
Individual of man playing saxophone
Three smaller paintings of women playing music
Three small paintings, with large scale work of hip hop group in background
Three individual paintings with large one in background
three paintings
Large diptych of musicians playing
Two paintings
Three paintings
Koichi Sato
Gallery view, small and large paintings of musicians
Gallery view, multiple paintings of musicians playing
Large diptych of musicians playing guitar
large painting of three female musicians with string instruments
Three musicians playing drums with subway tile background
Four hip hop artists posing, painting
Large diptych of musicians playing guitar, drums, and keyboard
girl with braided hair playing guitar
woman with maracas, painting
Woman with diamond earrings playing drums
Man playing saxophone, painting
Four men playing instruments inside subway station
Funk the Best

Koichi Sato

29 April - 29 May, 2022 Opening reception Friday, 29 April, 6-8pm

Jack Hanley Gallery is excited to present a solo exhibition with new paintings by Koichi Sato.

While growing up in Tokyo, Japan and before moving to New York in the late 90s, Koichi Sato was fascinated with old American magazines that portrayed the sports players, sitcom stars, astronauts and cheerleaders of American pop culture. The language of his paintings is strongly informed by the pictures in those magazines, and gives them a distinct vintage feel that is evoked through thick mus- taches and style choices of the 70s and 80s.

These joyful group portraits focus on musicians and music groups posing and playing their instruments in various settings, including the New York City subway and unknown lands of mountains and rain- bows. The groups face the viewer, laughing and proudly presenting themselves. Their inventiveness becomes especially clear when taking a closer look at the figures’ fingers in which their polydactyly is based on Sato’s personal decision-making when he thinks ‘there are enough’.

A vivacious and playful application of paint with short brush strokes and dots is paired with a lighter, washy technique seen around their faces, with drippings sometimes running down the surface. With the combination of the painting techniques and bursts of color paired with an imagery synthesized from different places, times and cultures, the paintings feel like a celebration of life itself.

Koichi Sato (b. 1974 in Tokyo) is a self-taught artist based in New York and Miami. He has had solo shows at Jack Hanley East Hampton, Bill Brady Gallery in Miami, Woaw in Hong Kong, and the Hole, New York. Selected group exhibitions include THE UPSTAIRS at Bortolami, New York; Anecdote at Stems Gallery in Brussels; Global Pop Underground at Parko Museum, Tokyo; Punch at Deitch in both Los Angeles and New York; Bill Brady Gallery alongside Susumu Kamijo in New York; and most recently at Galerie Nagel Draxler in Cologne.

For more information please contact info@jackhanley.com