Connoisseur Contemporary is proud to present “Masquerade”, the solo exhibition of Tomoko Sawada, one of the most important and well known Japanese photography artist today.  Tomoko Sawada was born in 1977 in Kobe, Japan, and she is fast gaining recognition in the contemporary art scene as a photography artist and is a recipient of numerous important photography awards worldwide.  Her work is collected internationally by museums such as The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York, The International Center of Photography, New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, Fogg Museum/Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, The Essl Collection of Contemporary Art, Klosternerberg and Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/ Contemporary Art (MAK), Vienna, where she held a solo exhibition.

Tomoko Sawada's work has been recognised and is collected for the important yet light-hearted themes that she is portraying using her own self; exploring the female identity and challenging expectations and social norms in the Japanese society.  Throughout her career, she has done a few different series, but “Masquerade” remains the most important and collectible works she has done by far.  “Masquerade” mimics the familiar format of cover girls on fashion magazines, and by using countless variations of hairstyle, posture, and facial expression, Tomoko creates the fifty different frames as a commentary on the desire for and pursuit of fame and trends as well as the social pressures facing young women.  Although this work is done in the Japanese context, it also resonates across borders and cultures, and is something we can identify with.  With the fifty frames, it also forms the largest-scale work by Sawada to date, and the impact it makes is highly impressive.