Sawako Nasu
Statement
Sawako Nasu speaks of distance, connection and relationship through the language of painting. “How can one reach the painting of the past?” she asks when looking back on her own practice. At the root of her work lies a gaze turned toward the absolute, unbridgeable distance that stretches between the classical and modernist paintings she loves — and the era they belong to — and herself, who stands in the present. It is precisely this sense of distance that gives her art its uncompromising vision. By placing the age of classical painting alongside the age to which she herself, as a contemporary person, belongs, and by working on what painting can still do, her stance moves beyond personal interest and takes on a present-day awareness: an attempt to search out what is possible at the tip of an art history that keeps on being rewritten.
Profile
2021 BFA, Oil Painting, Tokyo University of the Arts
2023 MFA, Oil Painting (First Studio), Tokyo University of the Arts
Recipient of the O Memorial Scholarship, Tokyo University of the Arts
2025 Forbes JAPAN 30 UNDER 30
Selected Exhibitions
2026
「a sketch of landscape」gallery trax, Yamanashi
「Iemura Seminar Exhibition 2026 – Placing Sawako Nasu’s Paintings in a Space of Natural Light Only」Art-Theque Gallery (Tama Art University), Tokyo
2025
「ライナスの布」KEN NAKAHASHI
2024
「Summer Flowers」「Ash」biscuit gallery karuizawa
「Vestige」NISO, London
2023
「Sunny, Rainy,」biscuit gallery, Tokyo
2022
「slipped moonlight」Ginza Tsutaya Books, Tokyo
「灯台へ」myheirloom, Tokyo
【Group Exhibitions】
2026
「MEET YOUR ART FESTIVAL 2026」Special Curation “Opening Bonds through Harmony” Warehouse TERRADA D HALL, Tennozu, Tokyo
「夜空と盃 II｜Drinking under the Moonlight II」SCÈNE, Tokyo
2025
「gyroid resonance」Spiral Garden, Tokyo
Two-Person Exhibition by Akiko Horio and Sawako Nasu「不滅」biscuit gallery, Tokyo
「doors」biscuit gallery, Tokyo
biscuit gallery × NISO (London) Collaboration Exhibition「bridge」biscuit gallery (Tokyo)
「Roche Projects Group Exhibition」Galerie Lulla, Los Angeles
2024
biscuit gallery 3rd Anniversary Exhibition「grid3」biscuit gallery, Tokyo
「Selection」KEN NAKAHASHI, Tokyo
「Inaugural Group Exhibition」NISO, London
「Intersection 2」Ginza Tsutaya Books GINZA ATRIUM, Tokyo
2023
biscuit gallery 2nd Anniversary Exhibition「grid2」biscuit gallery, Tokyo
Two-Person Exhibition「GENE – Genes Beyond Generations – Akira Nakajima × Sawako Nasu」Gallery Hana, Tokyo
「Draw Lines and Shapes on My Map」Taka Ishii Gallery, Maebashi
2022
Spiral Xmas Market 2022〜「A bright tomorrow, a sparkling future」 Omotesando Spiral Spiral Garden
「CROSSROADS」 WHAT CAFE, Tokyo
biscuit gallery First Anniversary Exhibition「grid」biscuit gallery, Tokyo
Two-Person Exhibition by Sawako Nasu and Yotaro Nunoda「Final Observer, ?」biscuit gallery, Tokyo
2021
Two-Person Exhibition by Renichiro Tada and Sawako Nasu「b⇔d」biscuit gallery, Tokyo
【Art Fairs】
ART OSAKA 2025
ART FAIR TOKYO 2025
ART FAIR TOKYO 2024
ART FAIR ASIA FUKUOKA 2023
Kiaf Seoul 2023
ART FAIR TOKYO 2023
【Award】
FORBES JAPAN 30 UNDER 30 2025
Available Works
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