Sayako Hiroi is a visual artist known for her evocative abstract works. Born in Japan and currently based in the United States, she completed a Master of Fine Arts at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston. Sayako’s artistry is characterized by a deep exploration of identity and the relationship between the West and East throughout history, often blurring the lines between the internal and external worlds.
She has been recognized with multiple awards and fellowships, including a fully-funded opportunity at Ox-Bow School of Art, the Montague International Travel Grant, and the Hamburg Exchange Program (The Art School Alliance). She was also a finalist in the Miami University Young Painter Competition, juried by Lauren Haynes. Her artist talks and features in publications like the Boston Globe and Tufts Now further solidify her exploration as a emerging artist in contemporary art.
Artist Statement
My artistic endeavors delve into the intricate relationships between the East and the West, as well as the nuanced layers that unfold between men and women. Informed by feminist and anti-orientalism perspectives, I systematically dismantle prevailing images to reconstruct them, challenging deeply ingrained narratives and learned beliefs.
Recently I use mainly Japanese woodblock prints “Ukiyo-e” as references of my works, and deconstruct the stereotypical images come from Ukiyo-e and rebuild up new images mixing inspiration from musics, poem, photographs in my daily life. This action navigates me to consider how danger may appear in familiar forms and status and how outer of things should be questioned.
Wrestling with distinct personal narratives and relationships, she imbues the manifold layers of her densely worked surfaces with traces of her emotional experience, and body language piled up for a long time based on her experience living in Japan and the West, burying them within the murkiness of the paint. It shows the reality mixing with the traditional and her memories and it is what she is as a Japanese female who wants to be free from status, race, gender, and stereotypical images others cast on her.
Instagram: @shanarine.3850
Personal website
images of work
