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Kazuya Sakamoto :
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| ©Kazuya Sakamoto |
Date: 7.17 (fri.) – 8.29 (sat.), 2026
Gallery hours: Tue. – Sat. 11:00 – 19:00 (Closed on Mon., Sun., and National Holidays)
Opening reception: 7.17 (fri.) 17:00 – 19:00
*Summer holiday: 8.9 (sun.) – 8.17 (mon.), 2026
nca | nichido contemporary art is pleased to present Under the Same Sky, a solo exhibition by Kazuya Sakamoto.
Kazuya Sakamoto began focusing on plants as a central subject after recognizing parallels between plant ecosystems and human society. In recent years, flowers in particular have become a recurring motif in his work. Through gardening and closely observing the growth and transformation of various plants, he came to realize that all forms of life are not fixed entities but exist in a constant state of fluctuation, shaped by the overlapping conditions that surround them. Sakamoto's paintings are carefully constructed through the accumulation of multiple layers, while actively embracing traces of spontaneous physical gestures and the element of chance that emerges during the creative process.
For this exhibition, he has undertaken a new approach by moving his studio practice outdoors. As a result, his sense of being in complete control of the painting gradually diminished. Instead, the works began to incorporate the phenomena that arise within an environment where uncertain conditions intersect—weather, light, time, the body, and even broader social changes. These factors themselves become active elements in shaping the image. Within his paintings, the fragile fate of living things and their resilience in the struggle to survive coexist in delicate balance. Each element asserts its own presence while contributing to a harmonious whole.
This exhibition presents a new body of work created specifically for the occasion.
On the occasion of the exhibition, Sakamoto offers the following statement:
The more I spend time observing plants, the more it feels as if they were each living according to their own specific time. Flowering seasons, rates of growth, and responses to their surroundings all differ. Watching these changes, I began to think that plants and people alike are shaped by the conditions around them, gradually changing as those conditions overlap and evolve.
This realization began to influence my painting practice. The assumption that a painting is created solely through my own intentions became harder to believe. Weather and light affect the work, of course, but so do my physical condition and even subtle shifts in concentration. A painting can easily move in an unexpected direction.
Over time, my sense of controlling the work weakened. Yet my commitment remained the same: to respond to whatever appears before me and allow it to take form as a painting.
I became interested in placing myself where many different conditions intersect.
For that reason, I moved my practice outdoors, where change reveals itself more directly.
The delphiniums that were blooming yesterday were gone today.
The poppies that arrived from Yatsugatake opened this morning.
Whenever I step into the garden, something has changed. Even in the same place, the same moment never returns.
One day, an unusually tall allium caught my attention. I boldly introduced its purple form into the composition. The balance I had carefully maintained suddenly collapsed, and the painting began moving in a new direction.
On another day, knowing visitors would arrive in the afternoon, I tried to finish at what seemed like the right moment. Instead, the painting exceeded my expectations.
When sunlight catches insects in flight, I find myself unable to resist following their movement with my brush. Some days, rain makes painting impossible. Even then, I go outside and try to paint a little.
For me, painting is not about reproducing what I see.
It emerges as one event among many that occur within a particular set of circumstances.
Weather, light, time, the body, and the painting itself all interact.
Where these elements overlap, an image comes into being.
Even what remains unpainted becomes part of the work.
No two moments are ever the same, even beneath the same sky. Painting is born from these small differences.
Like everything else in the world—including conflict and war—we exist within a state of continual change.
Life has no fixed form. It is sustained through constant movement and instability.
And so, within that ongoing flow of change, I continue to watch where painting leads.
Kazuya Sakamoto
From the moment your eyes meet these words, the world around you has already changed. A leaf has fallen. An insect has altered its course. Light has shifted across the ground. Even your own body, with each breath, has become subtly different from the one that began this sentence. Life is never still. It persists through continual adjustment, each moment giving way to the next without ever fully repeating itself.
Under the Same Sky begins from this simple observation: that painting, like life itself, is less an act of control than an encounter with continuous change. When painting a living environment such as a garden, how can one exclude the very forces that animate it—the passing of time, changing light, unexpected weather, or the movement of insects and plants? Rather than suppressing these variables, Sakamoto welcomes them into the work, allowing the painting to emerge through collaboration rather than control.
The layered surfaces of Sakamoto's paintings preserve the conditions of their making; shifting light, changing weather, spontaneous gestures. With the dashes of color we witness the presence of a flower, in their dynamic nature we see the evolution of time.
While some passages of color seem to blend and dissolve into one another, others stand in stark contrast through their texture and intensity. The eye lingers over the surface, wondering why certain swatches of white disappear beneath one layer while others remain exposed above it. Each mark seems to record a different moment in the painting's evolution, inviting viewers to imagine the decisions, encounters, and chance occurrences that shaped its final form.
Mina Tschäpe
Kazuya Sakamoto
Born 1985, Tottori, Japan. Lives and works in Tottori, Japan.
2014 MFA, Contemporary Art, Nagoya University of Art, Aichi
2012 BFA, Painting, Nagoya University of Art, Aichi
2017-18 Selected for the Agency for Cultural Affairs Program of Overseas Study in Taipei
Main solo shows: Phantasmagoria: Changing Scenery, Open gallery (Inside Nagoya Matsuzakaya), Aichi, Japan (2025) / IN BLOOM, nca | nichido contemporary art, Tokyo, Japan (2024) / Spring ephemeral, nca | nichido contemporary art, Tokyo, Japan (2020) / Symbiosis, galerie nichido Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan (2018) / Landscape gardening, Yonago City Museum of Art, Tottori, Japan (2017), and others
Main group shows: MINEBANE! Contemporary Art -Taguchi Art Collection, the Akita Prefectural Museum of Art and the Akita City Senshu Museum of Art, Akita, Japan (2025) / Special Feature: Contemporary Art | LIFE: Living in this World, Tottori Prefectural Museum of Art, Tottori, Japan (2025) / Young Okazaki vol.2, MtK Contemporary Art, Kyoto, Japan (2022) / Next World - Taguchi Art Collection x Iwaki City Art Museum, Iwaki City Art Museum, Iwaki, Japan (2021) / Identity XIII - Je t'aime... moi non plus - A love journey through art - curated by Daisuke Miyatsu -, nca | nichido contemporary art, Tokyo, Japan (2017) / Some Like It Witty, Gallery EXIT, Hong-Kong (2014), and others
