YOU ARE GOD
Katsuya Sugimoto

2021.2.24Wed - 2021.3.27Sat

hpgrp GALLERY TOKYO is pleased to present Katsuya Sugimoto's solo exhibition "YOU ARE GOD".

Katsuya Sugimoto is an artist who inquires about the process of painting with proficient skill and considered unique concepts. So far, he has often created artworks with light blue backgrounds unconsciously. He has established his style by laying out ready-made motifs such as figures and miniature cars on that background and adjusting contrast and colourings. One day, someone pointed out that those artworks had reminded them of "Sandplay Therapy'' advocated by Carl Gustav Jung, Dora Kalff, and Hayao Kawai in Japan. This made a change to his creation and brought a new concept to this exhibition-"YOU ARE GOD".

The artworks released at this exhibition have the same creative method. The first step is filling the same standard box of sand play therapy(72×57×7cm) up with the sand, and the child plays with toys from many eras and miniatures of some religious symbols. The artist calmly watches over all processes while the child plays and explains the story and draws that outcome on a canvas.

In his early works, He used to explain his faith and religious perspective allegorically. However, he turns actual motifs to the fake world, which is painting by including "The other" in his creative process in recent years. His artwork seems to look catchy initially, but the layers of contrary elements, for instance, others and myself, and fiction and reality, add a profound attraction.

One of the concepts of the new series is creatorship.
According to the bible story of Genesis, there is the phrase that "God created man in his own image." It describes God as the creator of the world. Sugimoto asks "Who is the creator?" "Who is the artist of the artworks?" as seen in the title of this exhibition, "YOU ARE GOD".


We release accurate artworks as you can find in every grain of sand, and some of his past works brought this idea to this exhibition.

Artist Comment：
It's been over 20 years since my high school days; I've started gathering junk items and miniatures with an eagerness for miniature toys. I ended up collecting tonnes of toys without noticing.

As a new attempt, I've asked random children ( Kindergarten-Elementary school students) to create their own world. I just observe the process of the original story as told by children. Children decide the resolution without meddling from adults.


For example, there is the cross as a shovel for moving sand, and sometimes, the Buddhist altar became a case for putting the sand into. On the other hand, they let superman wear high heels. The common cultural symbolism we understand as adults don't connect with children in the same way and tells us unknown usages. If a beautiful landscape appeared in the box, they would destroy it in a flash and recreate and update the story. The created world is complicated, delicate and fleeting. I captured "nature" created by children in the box and painted it "artificially".

Who created the world that we see right now? Who is creating or trying to create the scene appears in front of us?This is a project that asks who a creation is for?

「草を植えバスタブの中で祈る」
1167x910x30mm/Oil on canvas/2020

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