Yuichi Sugai was born in 1952 in Tokyo. In the 1970s he was very active within the minimalist paintings movement and held, at that time, exhibitions in different galleries in Tokyo as well as art institutions such as the Kyoto Museum, Kanagawa Citizen's Gallery, etc.
In the early 1980s Yuichi Sugai studied printmaking and subsequently opened a print- ing studio in Tokyo that soon became a reference in Japan and overseas, working with such artists as Toeko Tatsuno, Ufan Lee, Isamu Wakabayashi, Sandro Chia, Martin Kippenberger, Donald Baechler, etc.
In the mid mid-1990s he married and moved to the United States with his new wife. He continued making prints for international artists and taught printmaking at various institutions.After many years of hesitation and a deep will and need to create art, Yuichi Sugai decided in 2009 to produce his own work again. He developed a brand new series of works inspired by his childhood and a sense of nostalgia that currently inhabit him.
Yuichi Sugai is using a very unique medium; mixing printmaking techniques, painting and Kimono fabric to produce very original and inspiring works.
Yuichi Sugai’s art reflects the contradictions and mixed feelings that post war Japanese kids grew up with and that, now grown up men, reflect on. In his paintings, the artist mixes fine printing techniques with painted subjects and kimono collages to express a deep sense of nostalgy.
Image: © Yuichi Sugai, Art Statements Gallery