Sayako Sugawara

Sayako Sugawara is a London based Japanese artist working with various photographic processes and the cognitive associations that occur in the physical aspect of creative development. Her work explores notions of memory and imagination, analysis and poetics, stillness and movement.
Born in Milan, her family moved back to Japan in her early teens. She completed BFA and MFA in Japanese Painting at Tama Art University, Tokyo. This was followed by MA Photography at UAL London in 2013.
Sayako has exhibited internationally in both solo and group shows. In 2018 she had a solo show at fotodiskurs in Augsburg Germany, where she has created a site specific installation of mountain scapes created by enlarging and darkroom printing on large Japanese paper, images of the moulds found on 112 year old glass negatives. This was followed by a solo show at Galería F&deO in Madrid, where she produced another series of works inspired by the glass
negatives. In 2017 she created a site specific show using the whole space of the photography department, including the darkroom, at Fortismere School, presenting the work she has produced exploring the idea of the memories of the forgotten objects while a resident artist in this department.
‘Redwood Magdalene’ (2021) was shortlisted for the Ashurst Emerging Art Prize 2021. This was an offshoot of the project
Sayako was commissioned to produce for the Financial Times Weekend Magazine’s Summer Photography Special Issue 2020.
This year, ‘Pink Full Moon‘ has been published in England on Fire, a book by Stephen Ellcock and Mat Osman.