Ben Sakoguchi
Ben Sakoguchi is a Japanese-American artist recognized for his small paintings, many of which delve into socially significant subjects, including themes like slavery and the internment of Japanese Americans.
Biography of Ben Sakoguchi
Ben Sakoguchi was born in 1938 in San Bernardino, California. Currently, he lives and works in Pasadena, CA.
In 1960, he completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles. The artist pursued further education and, by 1964, had attained a Master of Fine Arts degree from the same university.
Sakoguchi served as an art instructor at Pasadena City College from 1964 until his retirement in 1997. After stepping back from the commercial art world in the 1970s, he remained active in university art galleries, museums, and various non-profit venues throughout Southern California, the Midwest, and New York, where he continued to showcase his work.
His recent solo exhibitions include "Belief & Wordplay" at Ortuzar Projects in New York (2023); "Ben Sakoguchi: oranges • pancakes • cartes postales" at Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois in Paris (2023); "Chinatown" at Bel Ami in Los Angeles (2021); and "Ben Sakoguchi: Made in U.S.A." at Ortuzar Projects in New York (2020); among others.
Sakoguchi's paintings have been featured in numerous group shows, including "Myth of the Cherry Tree" at Standard in Oslo (2023); "Joan Didion: What She Means" at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2022); "footnotes and headlines" at Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York (2021); "One Year: The Art of Politics in Los Angeles" at Brand Library and Art Center in Glendale (2017); and many more.
Ben Sakoguchi's Art Style
Ben Sakoguchi's incisive artistic style fuses figuration, history painting, and Pop art, creating pieces that serve as critiques of American cultural values and the absence of historical context in Californian idealism.
His work oscillates between sentimentality and starkness, functioning as an archive of micro-histories and grand historical narratives. Notably, he experiments with multipart paintings and modular canvases. As a Japanese-American and internment survivor, his personal history infuses his depictions of everyday life and coastal living with a campy cynicism that challenges the notion of American exceptionalism.
While Sakoguchi's exuberant depictions of consumerist abundance place his art in the realm of Pop art, they also evoke older influences, like the chaotic and eerie fantasies of Hieronymus Bosch. Throughout his body of work, Sakoguchi captures a distinctly American form of pandemonium, skillfully blending commercialized imagery, beloved pop icons, and historical figures with a sense of playful curiosity and dark humor.
Years:
Born in 1938
Country:
United States of America, San Bernardino, California
Gallery: