1973 - 2019 Education 1996-1999 Studies of oil painting at Tokyo University of Fine Arts and music, Japan 2000-2002 Studies of sculpture at the academy of art, Düsseldorf under Prof. Magdalena Jetelova

2019 Roppongi Crossing 2019 : Connexions, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (Japan) Dr. Reaper, KEN NAKAHASHI, Tokyo (Japan) 2018 My Favorites: Toshio Hara Selects from the Permanent Collection, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (Japan) 2017 TOKYO TRACE 2, Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney, (Australia) empty park, Gallery PARC, Kyoto (Japan) Gifu Land of Clear Waters Art Festival, Art Award IN THE CUBE 2017, The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu (Japan) Realism Art in Japan, Hakodate Museum of Art (Hokkaido) Toyohashi City Museum Art & History (Aichi ) Nara Prefecture Museum of Art (Nara) (Japan) The Iris of a Wolf, BLOCK HOUSE, Tokyo (Japan) 2017-2018 The Doraemon Exhibition, Mori Arts Center Gallery (Tokyo), Takaoka Art Museum (Toyama), Matsuzakaya Museum (Aichi) (Japan) 2016 Hara Documents 10 Masaharu Sato:Tokyo Trace, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (Japan) 2015 1×1=1, imura art gallery, Kyoto (Japan) ruitfulness-Contemporary Art in Toyokawa, Toyokawa City Sakuragaoka Museum, Aichi (Japan) 2014 Portrait of Hiroko, imura art gallery, Tokyo (Japan) Duality of Existence – Post Fukushima, Friedman Benda, New York (USA) Everyday Life / Off the Record, KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theater, Kanagawa (Japan) The Drifting Clouds, Galleria Paola Varrengla, Salerno (Italy) TRANS ARTS TOKYO 2014 CAVE -Kanda Projection-, ex-Tokyo Denki University, Tokyo (Japan) Japan Media Arts Festival, The Museum of Art, Ehime (Japan) FILE 2014, Fiesp Cultural Center, Sao Paolo (Brazil) WHO, PEOPLE BOOK STORE, Tsukuba, Ibaragi (Japan) NIPPON NOW: JUNGE JAPANISCHE KUNST UND DAS RHEINLAND, E.ON Galerie, Dusseldorf (Germany) 2013 Kawasaki City Museum (JP) The Earthly Paradise Vol. 5 Sato Masaharu, Gallery αM, Tokyo (Japan) Yamato Dynamics, Misuma Gallery, Gillman Barracks, Singapore (India) 2011 Imura Art Gallery, Tokyo (Japan) "Hierher Dorthin" Goethe Institute in Aoyama, Tokyo (Japan) "from a distance, keep a distance", The Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul (Korea) "JAPONCONGO" Le Magasin - National Centre for Contemporary, Grenoble (France) "JAPONCONGO" Carsten Hollers double take on Jean - Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture, Moscow (Russia) 2010 "Ein Hauch von Eden", Galerie Samuelis Baumgarte, Bielefeld "No Mans Land" The Embassy of France in Japan, Tokyo (Japan) "Act III", Witte de With Center of Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (NL) Solo show "Bye Bye Come On" at Imura Art Gallery, Kyoto (Japan) "Roppongi Hills Programs video art at Roppongi Art Night 2010", Roppongi Hills, Tokyo (Japan) "D-stance" Kuandu Museum of Fine Art, Taipei National University of the Art, Taipei (Taiwan) 2009 "Act III", Witte de With Center of Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (NL) 2009 "Signs", Galerie Voss, Düsseldorf "City_Net Asia 2009", Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul Korea Solo show at Gallery Jin, Tokyo (JP) 101 Tokyo art fair "No. 354 digital stadium", TV Programm/ NHK, Tokyo (JP) "No. 363 digital stadium", TV Programm/ NHK, Tokyo (JP) "The 12th Exhibition of the Taro Okamoto Award for contemporary art", Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki (JP) "No. 341 digital stadium", TV Programm/ NHK, Tokyo (JP) "digital stadium" TV program /NHK, Tokyo (JP) "Animation Festival 2008" Nagoya (JP) "The 4th Dan/Dans Exhibition / The house " Tokyo (JP) 2006 "Merry go down" tanzhaus NRW, Düsseldorf 2004 "Japanimprov#5: The Ramyun Soup Connection" Belgie Kunstzentrum, Hasselt (BE) "Haunted Folklore" Recyclart, Brussels (BE) 2002 "Internationales Bochumer Video Festival #12" Bochum 2001 "Internationales Bochumer Video Festival #11" Bochum Awards 2008 Special award: "The 12th Exhibition of the Taro Okamoto Award forcontemporary art", Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki (JP)

Masaharu Sato, "Avatar no. 06", 2009 from Galerie Voss on Vimeo.

Having studied oil painting in Japan, the artist soon turns towards digital techniques. Based on photographs, he draws the motifs with a so-called digital pen by tracing the images. Afterwards, the original photo data is erased. The artist's highly developped technique and the fact that the digital painting does indeed not show any brush strokes or other traditional painterly characteristics, makes it impossible to distinguish exactly between photography and painting, whereas the blurred line between the painterly and the photographic is throughly intended. Masaharu Sato's images depict situations from everyday life, although the well known scenes are often disturbed by small, irritating details. A young adolescent is reading a book and flames are licking at the pages, a naked couple is sitting on the sofa in the lobby of a grand hotel, a wig creeps out a plastic bag that is lying on the street. The often surreal details are disquieting, and they may indicate, that we do not participate in everyday's life, but rather in a dream. In his series "Avatar", Sato has added an animation to his drawings. Portraits of his friends, each and one in different surroundings, are shown on eleven screens. Synchronically, they are looking at first to the side, slowly turn towards the viewer and then turn their head away again; these sequences are being constantly repeated. The title "Avatar" refers mainly to the Hindu mythology, which calls incarnated gods avatars. Masaharu Sato finds such incarnations in everybody, regardless what origin, looks or mind. He chooses the different scenarios in a way, that the bodies of the depicted people are always hidden by any kind of requisites. Reduced to the head bearing neutral mimics, the viewer is dependent on the surrounding to reveal the people's characters.